Blood Brothers
by GronkSpikes
Summary: Family, it's all we have left in this world. When the dead have taken everything else, we try to cling onto what we can, in the hopes that we can see our loved ones again someday. Until then, I'll do what I can to keep him and myself alive. Rated T for Violence and Language. Constructive Reviews Greatly Appreciated. Spinoff of my previous story, Too Far Gone.
1. The Rules of Survival

**Before we get into the story, I wanna say a couple things. **

**First, I'd recommend reading my first story, Too Far Gone, as this is a spinoff of that story and there's going to be a lot of callbacks to that story and its events later on. So, if you haven't already, I'd strongly recommend it.**

**Next, for those of you who followed TFG, you'll know that I try to keep my story uploads to one chapter a week to keep up with my personal schedule and everything. You'd also know that I have a very busy life, and only do this for fun when I have free time. Furthermore, with my incredibly busy schedule, there's going to be points where I miss a week or two because of just about anything. I'll try my best to keep this consistent, but I can't guarantee that. With that being said, I'm gonna try to make this a chapter a week, uploading on Fridays, and it'll probably stay that way through the duration of this story. **

**Without further ado, enjoy.**

Chapter 1: The Rules of Survival

I didn't ask for this. Then again, who would? Six years, day in and day out, fighting to survive. I stopped praying for this to end years ago. No one would hear me, anyways. Maybe when I was younger, more naive, I would've hoped this shit would be done by now. Now, I've accepted the inevitable. This is how life is.

A fucking zombie apocalypse. It's pretty simple. Someone got infected, died, came back, killed someone else, and the cycle continued, eventually infecting enough of the world to bring it to the state it's at today. I won't pretend to be a scientist and act like I know what I'm talking about with most of this, because that'd be a lie, but the rules of survival are pretty simple: Don't get bitten. That one came pretty naturally when Mom came home that Saturday in July of 2010 with a bite on her arm. Hours later, she was inches away from tearing a piece of my face off. If it weren't for quick thinking from my Dad, I'd have been dead, just like Mom.

The second rule of surviving is to make sure you can do what needs to be done. It's shitty, but it keeps you alive. My Dad, who had raised me, defended me, watched over me and my brother all our lives, needed me the most, to make sure he didn't come back. At 14 years old, you're not supposed to do things like that, but I had to step up.

So I did.

I fulfilled my Dad's final wish.

And it killed me inside.

But it was what he wanted.

The third rule of surviving is don't get too attached to people that aren't your family. I learned this one more recently when our group was ambushed by some walkers in the middle of the night. Mom was long gone and Dad had been gone for about a year, so my brother and I were taken in by a family, Sierra and her girlfriend, Angie. We had been on our own for maybe a year when we met them, and they welcomed us with open arms along with their two kids, Jackson and Alyssa. The walkers came, and my fight or flight response was to run. I narrowly escaped our camp with my brother, brought to tears by the sounds of our adoptive family getting torn to shreds. We never looked back, too terrified to even think about it.

All that remains after these ordeals are the two of us: me and my brother. I'm Brett Sanderson. 18 years alive, and a third of them I've spent surviving this mess. My brother's Benjamin, but usually I'll call him Benji. He's two years younger, but he's my best friend and frankly, I don't think there's anyone I'd rather have my back in a fight.

The two of us started in Appleton, Wisconsin, where our parents, Byron and Allison, settled down and started our family. When the dead started walking, we moved East, toward Michigan and Ohio, usually hunting and scavenging for supplies, not staying in one spot for too long. That was enough to sustain us for a while, but when Dad died in Cincinnati, Benji and I decided to move on, going North towards Pennsylvania and New York. Eventually, we went South, winding up where we are today, in the woods of West Virginia. Who knows where we'll wind up next?

I pull out my knife, about to ambush an unsuspecting walker a dozen or so yards ahead of me, but I freeze when I hear something whizz past my head and plant itself in the walker's skull. I turn back around to see my brother walking toward the walker he'd just shot, removing the arrow from the skull with ease and loading it into his crossbow.

"Hey, watch it." I scold him. "You almost hit me."

He grins and shrugs. "Relax, Brett. I came nowhere close to hitting you."

I sigh and shake my head. He's probably right. He's had that crossbow since we looted a Sporting Goods store in Ann Arbor, and ever since he's became a crackshot with it. Still though, it doesn't hurt to be careful in this world. Staying careful keeps you alive.

The two of us go deeper in, the woods thickening and the midday sky turning toward the late afternoon.

"Hey. You see this?" Benji asks me as I turn back to see him looking at something, rope coiled around a tree, leading upwards. I follow the rope up to see a giant rock, suspended in the air and hanging by the rope.

"What the fuck is this?" I ask back to him, walking over to get a closer look.

"Maybe it's a trap? I don't know. Maybe for killing walkers." He suggests, and I nod in agreement. It makes sense.

"Doesn't seem very efficient, but I'm sure whoever set this knew what they were doing. Keep your eyes open and watch out for any more." I tell him. Looking around, we keep making our way further into the woods. Sure enough, there's more of them, and not just the rock traps. Swinging log traps and snares litter the area, and off in the distance, almost blended in with the wildlife, a large building, surrounded by a wall covered in moss and foliage.

We walk closer to it, and everything seems quiet. I take off my Brewers cap, rubbing my head and pushing some of my messy brown hair back before putting the cap back on, still getting a look at the place.

"What do you think this place is?" I ask my brother, the two of us trying to figure it out.

"A school, maybe?" My brother informs me.

"What makes you think that?" I ask him skeptically.

"The sign in front." He points in a sarcastic and matter-of-factly way at a sign off to the side, right by the front gate. Sure enough, that's it. 'Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth' the sign reads, clear as day.

I snicker at my brother and roll my eyes. "Jackass."

The two of us walk closer, and before either of us can react, a figure comes over the wall. Arrow drawn, they fire.

The searing pain shoots up and down my body as the arrow pierces the flesh just above my right knee. I cry out in pain as I hit the ground, clutching my knee as I crawl behind a tree for cover.

Benji dives behind the tree to check on me. "Are you alright?"

I groan as I try to stand up, and curse as more pain flares up in my knee. "No, not really! There's an arrow in my fucking leg!"

"We're not trying to attack you! Can you please stand down?" My brother calls out to our attacker, only to be met with another arrow finding its home in the tree trunk.

"Brody! Stand down!" a guy's voice yells out, and the onslaught of arrows stops. My brother pokes his head out to see what's going on, and I slowly get up to do the same.

As I come out from behind the tree, I look to see who ended the attack, a guy, around my age, with a weird sorta haircut, very short on the sides, his messy blond hair in a sort of mullet in the back and front.

"Hey, man. Your friend shot my brother. Can you help us?" My brother pleads to the boy, and he looks at us skeptically.

"Are you alone?" He asks us, and we answer with a nod.

"Just the two of us." I add, gingerly stepping over to my brother.

He eyes us over, sizing us up for a moment before nodding. "Come on. We've got someone who can patch you up."

Benji gets under my right arm, helping supporting me as we walk through the gates into a run-down courtyard, with more than a couple kids around my age or younger staring back at me. In fact, I don't see a single person that is visibly older than me here. So, where are the adults?

"Ruby." He signals to one of the kids and a girl with bright red hair and rosy cheeks gets up from a couch and hurries over to him. "Check out his knee and get him patched up. Brody got him with an arrow."

She looks at him with an unsure expression before she starts walking toward one of the buildings and motions for Benji and I to follow. Not wasting any time, we follow her inside.

* * *

She pulls out a small cot for me to lay down on as she pulls out some tools and other things. Putting on some gloves, she turns to me with a concerned expression.

"I'm not gonna lie to you," She warns me, "This is gonna hurt like the Devil." I give her a nod as she gets ready for what she needs to do.

Without any other warning, she grabs the arrow and starts slowly pulling on it, and I let out a shriek of pain as the fiery sensation burns even harder. She didn't lie, it hurts like Hell. But with one final pull, I feel the arrow removed from my knee, a small stream of blood now pouring out of me and staining my faded blue jeans.

"I'll need you to take these off so I can get to the wound. Can you do that?" She asks me, and I sorta blush from the situation.

"Yeah. Yeah I can." I unbutton my jeans and raise my butt to slide them off, wiggling them down my legs to my ankles, leaving me in my boxers and flannel on the cot. With the wound exposed, she grabs a bottle of clear liquid and a rag,

One again, she tells me the dreaded words. "This is gonna hurt a lot more than me pulling the arrow out, but I need to clean the wound."

"Just do it." I groan as I see her dampen the rag with what I assume to be alcohol. I brace for the pain that's about to come.

"Aaaaaargh!" I let out a painful scream and my body seizes up as the alcohol is exposed to my wound, the burning sensation spreads all around my leg and she cleans the wound. Benji looks on from right next to me, absolutely terrified, but just as quickly as it came, the pain begins to die down as she finishes cleaning it.

"You're a lucky man." She tells me with a smile. "Doesn't look like any major artery damage. Little bit of muscle damage, but that'll heal. You're gonna be sore for a while but it looks like I'm just gonna need to bandage you up."

"That's great!" Benji says before I can react. I sigh in relief as she gets up and grabs some bandages. From behind me, the sound of the door opening and footsteps entering.

"How's he doing?" The guy who let me in asks Ruby as he stands next to Benji. As she wraps the bandages around my knee, she looks up to Marlon.

"It's nothing serious, Marlon. Just needed to stop the bleeding and wrap it up. He'll be fine." She informs him as she finishes wrapping me up.

"Glad to hear. I wanna show you guys around if you want to stick around."

My brother and I both look at each other kinda uneasy, remembering that night with Sierra and Angie, and the promise we made afterwards. And yet, here we are. This guy is offering us a place here, in a secluded area that seems pretty well-fortified. This could work, so I shoot him a small nod. Still uneasy about it all, he hesitates before nodding back to me.

"I think that's a good idea. We've been on the road a few years, maybe settling down here is a good idea." I shrug as I sit up and put on my jeans.

"Great. So, for a formal introduction, I'm Marlon. I'm what passes for a leader around here. Obviously, you've already met Ruby, she's our medic."

"I'm Brett. And this is my brother, Benjamin." I nod to my brother behind me.

"Glad to meet the both of you. Let's introduce you to the rest of the kids. You seem like very capable people and frankly, it'd be a great help. We recently lost a couple of people and, well, things haven't been great around here."

"We'll help out however we can." Benji quips from behind me, and I smile back at him in pleasant surprise. Benji's always wanted to avoid groups, so to see him want to step up for these guys comes as a huge surprise to me, but a welcome one nonetheless. He gives a smile and a nod as he leads the two of us out, toward the courtyard we just passed through.

Marlon walks with a nice slow pace, leading us through hallways, littered with paintings and pictures of older adults, almost all of which now littered with graffiti. I take it these people were not particularly liked.

"So this is it. Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth. As it suggests, we were all students here when the dead came back, and just about all the adults ditched us, so we decided to take matters into our own hands." He tells us as we approach a large set of double doors.

"No adults… How does that work?" I ask him skeptically.

"Well, it's just like any other group, except the kids are in charge. I won't say it's easy, but it works. And hey, we've made it this long, haven't we?" He informs me as he opens the doors, leading us to a very official-looking office. "The control center. This is where we plan out anything we need to."

He walks over to a desk and I hobble over, he starts pointing at locations on the map.

"A map of the area?" I ask him, noting the different areas. There's lots of woods all around, traps all over the place, a river that runs to the SouthEast, and a train station way out to the SouthWest. Otherwise, it seems completely off the grid. The only way you'd find it is on accident, as Benji and I did.

"Yep. It's pretty closed-off from everyone else, but it's nice to know the area. Plus we have traps set in the area, so we can keep track of those. I'm sure you guys saw a few of them on your way here." The two of us nod.

"What about this? The safe zone?" Benji asks, pointing to a red outline surrounding the area.

"So, anything in this area is considered secure." He explains to us. "Outside that area… things seem to go wrong. People disappear, people die, it's just not safe. I'm sure you guys know how bad it can get out there, but the others, they just wouldn't get it, you know?"

I nod back to him. I guess he's right. The students here have been in these walls during this whole thing. They might have no idea what it's all like out there.

Marlon's interrupted by the door opening behind us, a girl around my age walks in. Skin pale as ice, light blonde hair, and piercing green eyes, glaring at me and my brother. Next to her, a bulldog, who starts to growl at the sight of us.

"Who are these guys?" She snaps to Marlon, and Marlon sighs behind us.

"Chill out Violet. This is Brett and Benji. They're brothers and they're staying with us."

"Oh joy." She rolls her eyes. "New mouths to feed, just to probably become walker food a few months later."

I cross my arms and shoot her a scowl. "Hey. My brother and I are both very capable people. And I can promise you we are a lot more than just mouths to feed around here. We're survivors that have spent years out on the road by ourselves, and I can also guarantee we're better shots than anyone here. Especially Benji here. Rifles, handguns, or even his crossbow, he'll beat out anyone here."

She scowls at me, but smiles a bit. "Well alright then, Mr. Deadshots. I guess we'll see how you do here." With one last skeptical look at us, she turns to walk out, the bulldog staying and growling, glaring its teeth.

Marlon whistles behind us. "Rosie. Lie down." Completely obediently, the dog does just as Marlon asks, laying down on a small bed, looking back at us.

"This is Rosie. She was the Headmaster's dog back when this was a school, but when Hell rose and the adults bailed, they left her with us, and she's been with us ever since. I know she's a little intimidating at first, but she really is well-trained. Go on, let her get to know you. She won't bite." He smiles, walking over to lightly pet her.

I join him, slowly reaching my hand out to the dog. She sniffs me once, twice, a third time before licking my knuckles and laying down peacefully. I gently pet the dog, and she softly sighs in response, getting a smile out of me. I love dogs, although I haven't really seen many since the apocalypse started.

"I think she likes you. Anyways, now she knows your scent and won't bark or growl when she sees you."

"Benji?" I ask my brother, looking on from a distance. He simply shakes his head, uneasy expression on his face.

"I'm alright. Maybe later." I figured as such. He's been a bit uneasy around dogs and I never figured out why. Oh well. I won't force him into it.

"Alright then, how about we go and meet the others?" Marlon suggests.

The two of us stand up and we all leave the office, and Marlon tells us one last thing before opening the doors to the office.

"One last thing. People are gonna be on edge. We just lost two people last week that were pretty good friends with the rest of us. It's why Violet was like that just now, and things aren't gonna be much better with the rest of them. They're scared, and they're counting on me to make things better around here. I'm hoping that having some new faces around here will change that, but if it doesn't, don't take it personally, alright?"

"Yeah, I get it. And don't worry. We'll be friendly." I assure him.

"Perfect. Thank you guys." He smiles to us, relieved. "So, shall we?"

There's a final rule of survival. If life gives you an opportunity, you fucking take it.

**It's been a minute, hasn't it? I said at the end of Too Far Gone that I was planning on maybe doing a separate story for TFS, and after playing through the first two episodes, I just kinda said fuck it and started mapping out the story. Special thanks goes out to user undyingrage98489 for Benji, his OC. **


	2. Warm Welcomes

**Chapter 2 - Warm Welcomes**

Marlon opens the doors, and the sunlight pours in as he leads us out into the courtyard, visibly more active since we were brought in. Marlon looks to our left and our gazes follow to a group of five, sitting on couches and chatting, so he walks over to join them. On instinct, we follow.

The five of them there, one black guy, a little shorter but evidently a bit bigger than Benji and myself, stirs something in a big pot over a fire as another black guy, taller but more slender, talks nonchalantly. Sitting down, a tan guy with black hair writing in a book, a white guy, tall, brown hair, and a very strong build, who whittles a block of wood as a younger boy, with dirty blond hair, watches on in awe.

"Guys." Marlon announces to the group. "This is Brett and Benjamin. They're joining our group because I think they're strong people and can help us out a lot. I know things have happened recently and some of you guys are on edge, but please be cool with them. They're gonna help us out a lot."

"Fresh meat." The tall white guy remarks as he whittles and the kid snickers. "I give 'em two weeks."

"Hey, Mitch, come on now. I think they could do at least three." The tall black guy jokes. "These guys look like they've seen Hell and back, can you say the same?"

I look back at my brother with a confused look, and he shoots me one back. Is he supposed to complimenting us or insulting us or…?

"You'll have to excuse my friends. Apparently they don't know how to act when we have new people around." The writer says, not looking up from his work as he speaks until it appears he's finished. "I'm Aasim."

"Brett." I introduce myself.

"Benji." My brother says behind me.

"That's Mitch and Willy." Marlon points to the whittler and the kid.

"And I'm Louis." The slender black guy does a mock bow to me and my brother. "Funniest and most musically talented of the group. Also the handsomest, but we won't get into that right now." He grins to the both of us.

"And the biggest ego, evidently." My brother remarks sarcastically, and I snort trying not to laugh too hard.

"Ouch." Louis puts his hand over his heart, pretending to be in pain as the others start laughing too.

"Benji here might have you beat for funniest, Louis. And Minnie DEFINITELY had you beat for most musically talented. I'll leave the handsomest to be judged by Ruby and Brody." the chef quips as Louis flips him off, using the other hand to adjust his dreadlocks.  
"Fuck you, Omar." He scowls back as Omar continues to stir the pot, sporting a cheeky grin as he does so.

"How'd the haul turn out today, guys?" Marlon asks Aasim, who got back to writing in his book.

Aasim simply groans. "Pretty shitty. We got maybe three, four rabbits. I could've had a deer but SOMEONE wouldn't shut the Hell up." He glares to Mitch, who in turn puts down his whittling equipment.

"Well I'm sorry Sophie isn't around so you can flirt and show off for her!" Mitch fires back, causing Aasim to slam his book shut.

"At least Sophie liked my flirting and showing off. How'd that go with Brody, huh?" My eyes shoot wide open as Mitch gets up, throwing his jacket to the ground, and grabbing Aasim by the collar. Loud commotion ensues as Mitch and Aasim start throwing fists at one another.

Out of pure instinct, I run up to the two, prying them apart before Mitch tears Aasim's head off, and I finally tear the two apart, getting in between them and creating as much separation as I can.

Aasim cools off, shaking his head and sitting back down, burying his hands in his face, and I turn back to Mitch, who doesn't look like he's ready to cool off, glaring at me now, rather than Aasim.

"You think you can just start getting in the middle of everything, just cause you're new here?" He cracks his knuckles and puts his fists up, like a boxer.

I smirk. "If I see a problem, I try to fix it. That's how I am."

"Well I see a problem right now, but I think I can handle it." Mitch's remark almost makes me grin. He's challenging me to a fight. This is getting off to a great start.

"Then try and fix it. See if you can land a shot on me." I encourage him as he runs at me. He brings his right arm back in a powerful punch and sends it right toward my jaw. I block it with my left arm rather easily as I respond with an uppercut of my own with my right fist. That's all it takes for Mitch to land flat on his ass, favoring his jaw while looking back up at me. I offer him my hand, which he accepts, somewhat to my surprise.

"Look, man. I'm not trying to fight everyone I see. I just want the same thing you do, to survive. I've been with this group for a couple hours, at most, and I don't want this to fall apart. I don't think you're a bad dude or anything. Just think for a second, alright?" I offer him a sincere smile as he sits down.

"Whatever." He snarls back at me and I shrug. The rest of them look awestruck at how effectively I had put down Mitch, the biggest one of them.

"Noted. Don't try to fight Brett because he will kick your ass." Louis remarks, and I send a small smile his way.

"I wouldn't fight Benji either, if I were you. He might be better than me, if we're being honest. He actually knows what he's doing." My brother grins at my compliment. When we were younger, he took martial arts lessons, and was pretty damn good at it. When the apocalypse started, he and I started sparring together, so he could hone his skills and I could learn to defend myself. It was one of the last things our dad told us before he died, to learn how to defend ourselves if all we have it our fists, because we won't always have a gun or a knife.

"Ok, so now that we've established that you two are total badasses, and not to be fucked with, I guess we should finish up the introductions. Although I should warn you, these last two, they're probably not in much of a talking mood. Like I've said earlier, we recently lost a couple of really good people, and, well, they were his sisters and her best friends. So, like I said, don't take anything personally." Marlons informs us once again, nodding to a boy drawing on a table and a girl on guard duty, holding a bow. I guess she's the one that shot me.

Marlon walks over to the table and the three of us sit down opposite the boy, a small black kid with black hair, a nasty burn mark on his face, drawing away on a sheet of paper.

"Hey Tenn. How're you doing, buddy?" Marlon asks gently, the boy not looking up from his drawing.

"I'm fine." He mumbles quietly, resuming his drawing. I look, it's three stick figures, pretty well-done. One has short black hair, I assume him, while the other two have red hair, one straight and one curly. Are they… are they his sisters? I think so. Maybe art is how he's coping.

Despite my curiosity, I decide not to ask about it. The kid's maybe eleven years old, and just lost both his sisters. I couldn't imagine how I'd be in his position. To not upset him, I instead decide to introduce myself and my brother.

"Hey Tenn. I'm Brett. And this is my brother Benji."

"It's… It's nice to meet you. I saw you beat Mitch just then…" He looks up at me timidly, dropping his pencil on the table.

"Yeah about that…" I sheepishly grin and rub my head. "I didn't want to fight him. Tensions just got high and I think that settled things down for the time being. Hopefully I don't have to do that again, you know?"

"Yeah, I know. Mitch is sometimes a bully. So is Willy. They scare me sometimes, and I wish I could stand up like you did. But I don't like fighting, either. I don't like seeing people get hurt. Someday, I hope we're all safe, where we won't get hurt. Like Heaven. I'll get to see my sisters, and everything will be good again."

"I think that's a good way of looking at it." My brother speaks up, and I turn a bit to smile at him. Even though he hates groups, Benji'll always have a soft side for kids. This kid Tenn is no different. The two of them start to converse as I look off into the distance, at the girl doing watch, the one who shot me.

"That's Brody." Marlon informs me, noticing my gaze. "She's the one that… you know… You wanna go meet her?"

"Sure, I-" I'm interrupted by Louis's voice from behind us.

"Dinnertime guys! Come and get it!" The teen proudly announces, and my stomach rumbles. Maybe meeting Brody can wait. After all, to have a warm meal after years of hunting and and scavenging food, there's not much more you can ask for in today's day and age, especially one someone else has made, I'd say it's been at least three years since.

The three of us walk over to Omar, who hands each of us a warm bowl of soup with meat and vegetables floating in a steamy broth. My mouth waters at the sight and part of me wants to devour the soup right there. Despite this, I sit down with Marlon, across from Omar and Aasim, the three of them already digging in, so I decide to do the same.

Upon tasting the soup for the first time, I dig in like a death row inmate eating his last meal, savoring the tender meat and the perfect flavors. With one final slurp, I finish off the broth and sigh in satisfaction. Omar notices this and grins.

"I like to say, 'You can eat, or you can eat right'. Brett here is eating right."

"Omar, this is the first warm meal I didn't have to hunt and then prepare over a weak fire in the middle of the woods in maybe three years. This shit is like what a king would eat compared to what I was having out there." I explain to him, and he simply laughs.

"Well like I said, here at Ericson's, we eat right." I nod back to him. If this is what every meal is like here, then I could get used to this very quickly.

Over Omar's shoulder, I get a glimpse of Benji, chatting with Tenn as he draws, and next to him is Violet, talking with both the boys and seeming rather nice, despite our earlier encounter.

"Your brother's warming up to Violet and Tenn." Marlon notices. "That's good. She's usually not so… upbeat. Especially after recent events. Tenn's sister, Minnie, well, she and Violet were… how do I say this? They were close." He tells me, putting some extra emphasis on 'close'.

"Ah…" I nod back, not getting it at first, before it hits me square in the face. "Oh! So you mean-"

"Yep. Exactly."

"Ooooooh. That makes so much sense. God damn… That's really some shit."

"It's terrible. Sophie and Minnie were some of the nicest people here. And they were just taken from us, like that." Aasim says with the snap of his fingers, frowning heavily.

"To lose someone you love like that, shit… What happened?"

"Brody and I were out on a supply run with the twins, outside the safe zone. We knew it was risky, but Minnie wanted to risk it, just because she hoped there were supplies out there. We weren't finding much, but Minnie kept on going. She didn't want to go back empty-handed. But then, a group of walkers got the jump on us." Marlon says with a sniff, "The twins saved me and Brody, at the cost of their own lives. I would've never asked them to do such a thing, but they did it anyways."

"Howdy folks!" Louis quips as he sits down next to Omar. "What're we talkin' about?"

The silence that comes from the four of us tells him all he needs to know. As he comes to the realization, his joyful expression turns more somber, but he perks up once again, pulling out some decks of cards.

"Minnie loved playing cards. She loved getting to know us, so I think we should do that now, get to know Brett a bit better." Louis explains. "I think it'll be fun. What do you think?"

Omar shakes his head. "I've gotta clean up dinner. Maybe another night, Louis."

Louis simply responds by sticking his thumb down at Omar and sticking his tongue out. Aasim shows no indication of leaving, and neither does Marlon, so I guess we're doing this.

I shrug. "Sure. Guess it would help if you guys know me. How's it work?"

Louis grins. "I think tonight's game is war. A simple game, the oldest game. Played by man and beast alike. Are you familiar?"

I nod. "Yeah. We all draw a card, highest card wins. But how does this work with getting to know me?" I ask him, slightly confused.

"Well, if you win, you ask us a question. If one of us wins, we ask you a question. It's pretty simple really." He tells me as he hands decks of cards around to Marlon, Aasim, and then myself.

With that, we all draw a card. Eight of Spades for me, Ten of Hearts for Marlon, Jack of Clubs for Louis, and King of Spades for Aasim.

"Guess it's me. I'll start simple. Where are you and Benji from?" Aasim asks.

"We're from a small city in Wisconsin. Appleton. It's just South of Green Bay. I grew up a huge Packers fan. I went to a game or two every year."

"Wisconsin, eh? I guess that means you're pretty used to the cold then." Marlon remarks, getting a smile out of me.

"Yeah, I'd say I'm used to it. Can't say I'm a fan of the fluffy white bullshit known as snow, though. I'll take mid 90's in Miami over below-zero in Oshkosh any day of the week."

The next round starts, and I smile as I pull the Queen of Hearts. I look to the others, Louis has the Five of Clubs, Aasim the Five of Spades, and Marlon the Five of Hearts.

"Alright. Point Brett. So, 'Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth', what's the whole deal here?"

Marlon shrugs, taking a moment to glance around the school. "It's as the name suggests. A boarding school for troubled youth. All of us were sent here for different reasons, some of us for things like anger issues, others for more… extreme reasons." Louis frowns again, and I look at him curiously, but I don't say anything. A solemn silence follows, and my stomach sinks a bit. But it's finally broken when Aasim draws his card, the rest of us following suit.

Marlon grins as he pulls the King of Diamonds. I look down at my Queen of Diamonds, Aasim's Two of Spades, and Louis's Seven of Clubs.

"Alright, Brett. What should I ask you? Oh, I got it! You and your brother have been by yourselves for, what, three years, you said? So who took care of you when you weren't alone? Family?"

I sigh, having to think back to some painful memories. "Well, yeah. Mom was bitten the first day, and she nearly got me just after turning. My Dad took care of us for the first couple of years. He taught us everything he knew about survival. Hunting, shooting, so much of what we know today, he was teaching us until his last breath. We came across another group some time later, some really great people named Sierra and Angie. They taught us some other important things, like how to care for younger kids, how to drive, things like that. We got ambushed by walkers one night, and Benji and I barely made it out. From there, we were all on our own until, you know, I took an arrow to the knee."

Louis laughs at that. "Oh, man! That was hilarious looking back. Brody got you pretty good, didn't she? Man she was embarrassed after that one. I don't think she's talked to anyone since, to be quite honest." His demeanor changes dramatically, to a more concerned one. "Holy shit, I don't think she has talked to anyone else, has she? Oh man…" I look toward the entrance, to see Brody walking inside, looking back at us for a moment before hurrying inside.

"Shit, I hope she doesn't feel too bad about shooting me." I frown. "Like yeah, it hurts like Hell and all, but there isn't any major damage and Ruby said I'll be fine. Shit, it was just an accident."

"Yeah, she feels bad." Marlon assures me, "But that's just Brody. She has anxiety, these things just happen sometimes. Plus, she's been really on edge, cause of the twins. She's a really good person to have around when her mind's right."

I simply nod in response as I draw my next card. Nine of Hearts. Aasim, the Ace of Clubs. Louis, the Three of Clubs. And Marlon, the Seven of Diamonds. Marlon nods to me, Aces are low, I guess.

"Ok, my question. Favorite thing to do in your free time?"

Louis's face lights up. "Well, I like to serenade this school with the works of Beethoven, Bach, myself, Mozart, et cetera, et cetera…"

Aasim stops him before he goes any further. "Woah, woah! I know you're not putting yourself up there with those guys, Louis. Come on, man."

"What? I'm talented."

"Sure, but you're not up there, yet."

Louis simply grins, and Aasim shakes his head.

"Anyways, I like to record what life's like when this mess started. I've got a book in my room where I write down everything that's going on, kinda like a history book. I figured if someone were to come across it after this thing's done, they'd want to know what it was like living during the apocalypse." I nod, impressed. I wonder if he's written about me and Benji yet. I wonder what kind of impact we'll have on this story.

Finally, I turn to Marlon, and he just shrugs. "I don't really do much for fun anymore. I'm stuck with a lot of responsibilities leading, so that's really all I do. Although, I will say that I like hunting, or just going for walks with Rosie. It's a nice way to clear my mind, especially when there's high tensions around here. Usually if I'm out hunting, I can get us some rabbits, sometimes something bigger, if I'm lucky. And then, Omar uses that to make the best meals you'll find around here."

"I can agree with that!" I grin enthusiastically.

Louis looks up at the sky, noticing it darkening. 'It's almost time to call it a night, guys. How about one more round?"

We all flip, and I reveal the Four of Clubs. I look around, and Marlon has the Six of Diamonds, Aasim has the Nine of Spades, and Louis has the Ten of Clubs. His eager expression turns a bit uneasy, so he gives me a warning. "Um, this isn't gonna be an easy question, or a fun one, but I think it needs to be asked. You already said your mom was bitten on the first day, and your dad watched you for some time, but not anymore. So, what happened?"

I feel a knot in my chest, and I frown, looking down at the table. "The same thing that happens to everyone you love nowadays." I say quietly, reshuffling my cards and putting them back in their carton, placing the carton gently in front of Louis. "I think I'm done for tonight. I'll see you guys in the morning."

Without another word, I walk back to the room Marlon set us up in. I drop my bag to the floor, right next to the bed opposite Benji's, and lay down, closing my eyes, praying for a good night's sleep.

"You alright?" my brother asks me as he flips the page in his book.

"Not really, but I'll be fine." I groan, still laying down. "The card game we were playing just got me thinking about Mom and Dad."

"Oh…" I hear him put down the book. "I know Mom was bit before we knew about all this, but could we have saved Dad?"

I blankly stare at the ceiling, trying not to relive flashbacks of that afternoon. "I...I don't know. That walker got the jump on us. But, like, could we have acted faster? I just don't know."

"You know it's not your fault, right?"

I sniff as some tears well up in my eyes. "Yeah, I know. It was a freak accident. But I can't stop thinking about it all. I miss both of them. Really badly."

"I do, too. It's hard to believe it's been four years since Dad. Six since Mom. Can you believe that? Mom died six years ago. This mess has been going on for six years."

"We've been surviving for six years." I smile towards my brother. "We make a good team. We watch our backs, we know how to survive out there, and if these guys let us stay, we can contribute a lot here. We got 12 years of experience between the two of us, that counts for a lot."

"We do, and we will. If we're gonna be here. We're gonna make the most out of this place."

Still smiling, I sit up a bit, "Yeah, I'm kinda surprised you're so eager to be in a group, especially after Sierra and Angie and everything that happened. All things considered, you really wanted to avoid groups."

He shrugs, laying doing in his bed. "I don't really know. It's just something about this place, the people here, everything. Maybe I was just sick of always being on the road, so having a place like this that's got strong walls and good people, it's just something nice." He says with a yawn.

I chuckle, "Sounds like it's time to call it a night". He nods and puts his book away. It's been a Hell of a day, but to sleep in a bed for once, for the first time in a while, it beats camping out in the fucking woods.

Benji blows out his candle, and I close my eyes, in hopes of a peaceful slumber.

* * *

"Alright, boys. You know what to do. Eyes up, guns up, watch the dark spots. Keep quiet. We don't know who or what's in here." Dad tells us as I pull my M9 out of its holster, Benji does the same with his crossbow. The two of us nod back, and with that, he slowly opens the door to the shop.

The rays of sunshine bounce off the floating specks of dust in the room, creating a pretty scenery, if it weren't for the rotted corpses that littered the floor. Thankfully, none of them appear to be alive, or undead, rather.

"What're we looking for in here?" I quietly ask my Dad as he opens up a cabinet, picking up a couple small cartons and putting them in his bag.

"Anything useful, really. Food, medicine, anything we can scrounge up. Just don't get yourself killed over it."

I nod to my father as I walk deeper into the shop, the shelves littered with moldy food, empty boxes, and not much of use. I pick up a box of cough syrup and shrug, putting it in my bag. At the back end of the store, I find a door, a light coating of dust covering it, and I turn the handle. With a slight budge, I put some more effort into it, and I eventually open the door.

I'm met with the face of a walker, face rotted and arms outstretched. He grabs me before I can raise my gun and shoot him, crying out as I trip and he tackles me to the floor. My arms barely holding him back from sinking his teeth into me.

"Brett!" My Dad and brother both call out as they hear the commotion. But, I don't answer. I simply can't. As I feel my arms weakening, the walker's mouth getting closer as it overpowers me, the milky white of its eyes meeting mine.

My arms nearly give away, and I can feel the walker's hot breath on my skin, just as my Dad tackles it, rolling around with it until it winds up with it on top of him. But my Dad, a lot stronger than me, holds it back.

The sound of an arrow flying past me and piercing the walker's skull is the only thing I can hear for a split second, and with a final gasp, it falls to the ground, dead. The entire room is dead silent.

Dad gets up, dusting himself off before looking at the walker that had just attacked us, before turning back around at us, but still silence.

Benji's quavering voice breaks this silence. "D-Dad?"

Dad doesn't answer. Instead, he looks down at his chest, a small trail of blood coming from his pec, staining his white undershirt.

"Shit…" He curses quietly.

"Dad… What's that?" I ask him, my own voice choking up.

He doesn't answer me, instead tearing off his jacket, throwing it to the ground, the blood more pronounced in a concentrated area, and my stomach drops.

Finally, he pulls off his undershirt, revealing his bare chest, and my suspicions are confirmed and tears start to drop.

He's bitten.

"No… Dad No!" Benji cries out to my right. Without a word, he steps over to us and hugs the both of us, trying to comfort us, even though we know what's coming.

"It's gonna be alright, guys. Let's find a quiet place for the time being and then we can decide what to do, ok? Don't panic." He assures us, even though we know he's got a few more hours, at most.

We walk out of the shop, and the three of us walk down the street, passing by more empty stores as the sky gets darker, before Dad leads us into an old apartment building, opening one of the units, conveniently left unlocked. After a quick check for any walkers in the apartment, Dad puts down his things and slumps down onto the couch.

"So… What now?" Benji asks as he does the same.

"Boys, I don't have long." Dad coughs, his voice already sounding weaker. "We all know what's going to happen. Now, I wouldn't ask this of you guys, but when this thing takes over my body, I'm… I'm going to need one of you to put me down…" He hoarsely tells us, and Benji and I both look at each other, neither of us wanting to do it, even though we know it needs to be done.

I sniff, but I stand up, wiping the tears from my eyes. "I'll do it…" I quietly assure my Dad.

He weakly smiles, closing his eyes. "Thank you, Brett. I'm sorry you have to do this, but it needs to be done." He coughs up some blood, splattering on the old carpet. "Fuck…"

"How are you feeling?" Benji asks, and Dad simply smiles.

"I'm at peace, Benji. I'm at peace. I know you boys will be alright. After all, I taught you everything I know. At least now, I'll be able to see your mother again." He softly smiles as he closes his eyes. "I'm proud of you boys. I always have been, and I always will be. Your mother would be proud to see the young men you've become, too."

"Dad?" I quietly ask, as the smile fades from his face. He doesn't answer. "Dad? Dad! DAD!"

I tap his shoulder, but no response. I put two fingers to his neck, and I feel myself shatter inside.

No pulse.

He's gone.

I shake my head to Benji, and he starts to break down in tears, my body about to do the same. I remember my Dad's final request, to make sure he doesn't come back. I reach into my holster, pulling out my M9. My arms tremble and my vision blurs, but I still manage to line the sights up to Dad's head. Tears streaming down my face, I do the one thing I never wanted to do.

I pull the trigger.

**Thank you so much for the support on Chapter 1! Glad to see some of you guys like this. As always, I greatly appreciate any constructive criticism, whether you leave a review or tell me through a DM. I accept all constructive criticism and I would appreciate it so I can know what to do better, and what you like. Hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you next Friday.**


	3. Dreams and Nightmares

**Chapter 3 - Dreams and Nightmares**

My body jolts awake with a quick yell escaping from my mouth, beads of sweat rolling down my forehead as I feel myself begin to cry, covering my face with my hands to keep quiet and not wake the others. Evidently, I'm not quiet enough, as Benji gets up out of bed and sits down next to me. He rubs my back as I keep crying, more salty tears soaking my face and hands.

"I got Dad killed." I say to him. "It's my fault he's dead. I let that fucking walker get him. I was careless, and he paid the price for it."

"Brett, there was nothing we could have done. You said it yourself, it got the jump on us. You can't blame yourself for what happened. It was a freak accident what happened. It was fucking tragic, and I'm sad that it happened, but you can't say it was your fault." Benji assures me, but I shake my head.

"Say all the nice things you want, Benji, but there's a lot there that is my fault. I opened the door, and just stared it in the face. Like, I knew it was a walker. I could've backed away, shot it, stabbed it, anything. But I just froze."

"We were kids. You were scared. It happens. Please, don't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault."

I sigh, knowing he's right. I was fourteen. I froze. But still, I got him killed. I can't just say it wasn't my fault. My mind racing, I need some air and to just cool down.

"I'm gonna go for a walk. I need some alone time, you know?"

"Ok. Do what you need to do."

With that, I get out of bed, putting on my boots and my jacket. As I slowly open the door, I turn back around to Benji, a teary smile on my face. "Hey, Ben?"

"Hmmm?" he looks up at me.

"Thanks for being my brother. I know that's not really something you had any say in, but I'm glad you of all people are my brother. I don't think I coulda made it six years out here without you by my side."

In the moonlight, I see him smile and nod once. "I wouldn't give it up for the world, man. We're all we have left. But you and me, I like our odds, whether or not this turns out to be a long-term thing."

"Let's hope this is a long-term thing. I was getting sick of living on the road." I smile before heading out the door, quietly closing it before walking down the spacious halls of Ericson. The sound of my footsteps echo off the walls, the only thing I can hear as I reach a flight of stairs. I walk up it, passing through a set of doors and I see an opening to a balcony.

As I walk out onto the small balcony, I take a second to marvel at the sight. The entire courtyard, the woods, the whole landscape visible in the moonlight. I sigh as I lean up against a barrier, looking out at everything. I hear footsteps walking toward me, and I turn around, just to be face to face with that girl, Brody, that shot me.

Neither of us say a word at first, the two of us just stare at each other, before I finally break the silence.

"Uh, hi."

"Hi…"

"You're Brody, right?"

"Yeah, I am. You're one of the new guys?"

"Sure am. I'm Brett. I'm the one you got in the knee." I grin, and her expression becomes panicked.

"I am so sorry about all that. I really didn't mean to. You guys were strangers and all and I panicked and I just-"

"Brody. Please. It's fine. Ruby patched me up, and she said my leg's gonna be fine." I assure her, and she calms down a bit.

"Really? I'm so glad to hear. God, I just felt so bad when Marlon told us you guys were staying, cause I know that I shouldn't have shot you. He said you guys seemed like good people, so that just made the fact I shot you even worse. I really am sorry."

I shake my head. "Seriously, don't worry about it. I'm just a little sore." I sincerely smile, rubbing my knee a bit. "If it's any consolation, it was a Hell of a shot. You managed to get me right above the kneecap without hitting any arteries. You're a bit of a marksman yourself, aren't you?"

She blushes, looking down at the ground. "I was aiming at the ground in front of you, I never meant to hit you." She admits to me, but I shrug it off, chuckling a bit.

"Well then, yeah, your accuracy could use some work." I joke. "Lucky for you, my brother and I are both a couple of marksmen ourselves."

She looks at me, both intrigued and impressed. "Is that so? Maybe you should give some tips and help me practice sometime?" She smiles at me in a real pretty way and I feel my insides churn just a little bit, but I don't let her notice. God damn… Do I have a crush on her?

"I think we can do just that. Hell, I'll have you shooting better than me with enough practice, if you'll let me." I smile back to her.

"So be it then," She sweetly smiles again. "You'll teach me how to shoot." She says with a giggle, causing me to smile again. Yep. I definitely do.

"What're you two doing?" I hear Mitch's voice to the right, and I turn and see him looking at us, arms crossed and a less than pleased expression on his face.

Brody sighs, "We're just talking Mitch. It's fine. Nothing's going on. You can go back to bed."

He eyes us suspiciously before turning around and walking back to his room. And Brody waits until Mitch is out of hearing range before getting back to our conversation.

"I'm sorry about him. He's a bit… abrasive."

I scoff. "Yeah, that's certainly one way of putting it. He's a bit of an asshole, isn't he?"

She giggles. "Yeah. He's an asshole. It's just how he is. But I saw the way you beat him up earlier, that was something."

I simply shrug. "He picked a fight he thought he could win. And I put him on his ass. I didn't want to do it, but I was scared he'd kill Aasim, all for saying something about you and Mitch?"

She rolls her eyes. "Mitch wishes. He told me he had feelings for me, but I turned him down. He's just not my type. I usually like guys that aren't complete assholes." She says with a laugh, and I join her.

"Well he's got a good taste in women, I'll give him that." I say, not even thinking about what I'm saying, and she immediately stops laughing, looking at me with a surprised look, blushing. I mentally kick myself for letting things go too far. I want to apologize, but no words come out of my mouth, so I just look at her like a moron that just told a girl he just met he likes her. That's me. I'm the moron.

The two of us just stare at each other, and I silently pray that she ends the silence. We keep staring until she finally breaks the silence.

"Brett? Were you flirting with me?"

"Uh. I didn't mean to- I just- I didn't want to be like-" I stammer for a moment, trying to collect my thoughts "...Yes. I'm sorry if I kinda put you in an awkward position. I just think you're super pretty and nice and all and... I like you and it just sorta flew out."

Another stunned silence follows, but she smiles. "Well, I think I like you, too. But, I don't want to take things too fast, you know? You seem like a cool guy and all, I just wanna get to know you better. But don't worry, I think it'll happen soon enough." She says with a cute smile.

I softly smile, which slowly turns into an embarrassed grin. I blush and look down, I look back up to still see her smiling at me, before she leans in and I feel her lips meet mine. The two of us kiss, and for a moment everything else leaves my mind. All I can think about is Brody. No School, no walkers, nothing. Just this beautiful girl that has feelings for me, apparently.

We break away from the kiss and I just stare, awestruck. My first kiss, completely out of nowhere like that. She giggles at my expression, and I think she knows.

"You can shoot, you can fight, you can kiss, is there anything you can't do?" She grins to me and I grin back, embarrassed.

"I guess you'll have to find out."

"Hmmm. I guess I will." She smiles to me. She looks out at the scenery outside and then back to me. "It's pretty late. I think I should go to sleep. I'll see you Brett, alright?"

I smile and nod. "Of course, Brody. Good night."

She blows me a kiss and I start feeling butterflies in my stomach as I go back to looking out at the courtyard. A small smile forms on my face thinking about it all. Benji and I have some new people, with good food and protection, and I just kissed a girl for the first time. This has been an interesting day to say the least.

Moments later, I hear someone sigh as they lean up on the barrier next to me, and I turn to my right to see Mitch trying to spark a hand-rolled cigarette.

"You came here to just give me Hell, didn't you?" He snarls as he finally lights it. "You beat me in front of everyone else, you steal the girl I wanted from me, all on your first day here. What's next, you cut my throat in my sleep?"

I shrug. "You picked a fight you couldn't win, and Brody wanted someone that wasn't a complete asshole. I'm not gonna kill you or anything, because I think there's a lot to gain from being a part of this group, and I'm not gonna lose their trust over some petty rivalry with you, Mitch. Although, if I had a suggestion, I'd lose the attitude and maybe show me some respect. You know damn well I am smarter, stronger, and more capable than you are."

He sneers at me, "And if I don't?"

I lean in with a nice grin. "I can give you Hell beyond your wildest dreams. Just keep that in mind. Don't test me, I'll pass every time, and I think you know that." With a smug smile, I pat him on the back a couple times, making sure he got the point. "Have a good night, Mitchell."

With that, I turn back around, and he doesn't say a word. I slowly walk back to my room, feeling like a new man. I creak open the door to see Benji sound asleep in his bed, and I walk over to mine, laying down under a thin blanket and closing my eyes with a satisfied smile.

What a fucking day.

* * *

I wake up that morning to a bright beam of sunlight pouring in through the window, and I slowly wake up to see Benji putting on his boots.

"Hey." He says to me as he finishes getting dressed and picks up his crossbow.

"Morning." I say back groggily, messing with my hair for a bit before putting on my Brewers cap.

He waits for me as I do the same, throwing on a plaid flannel, a fresh pair of faded jeans, and my boots, pretty worn-down but still in good enough shape. I strap on my holster and pick up my Remington 700 rifle, and the two of us walk out of our room, and out toward the courtyard, where everyone is already up and about, doing their daily tasks.

"There they are! We let you sleep in a little bit, being you first real day here and all." Marlon says, walking up to us. "So, what to have you guys do today…? You boys feel like hunting?"

"Sure!" I grin. "Who else is hunting?"

"Marlon looks around. "Well, it looks like you two, Louis, Aasim, and Brody." My face lights up hearing Brody's name, and Marlon eyes me curiously, but continues. "We have animal traps set up to capture small game like rabbits and shit all around the safe zone. We'll just need you guys to go out, see if we've got anything, and bring it back for Omar."

"Seems easy enough." Benji remarks, and I nod in agreement.

"I would think so, and having you guys around, maybe things might go a bit more smoothly." This time, it's my turn to eye him curiously, but I say nothing.

The two of us walk over to Louis, Aasim, and Brody, the three of them chatting while they're getting ready, and we join them. Brody's the first one to notice me, brightly smiling at the sight of us.

"Hey y'all." She warmly says with a beautiful Southern twang, "Are you joinin' us today?"

"We sure are. Let's kill some animals." I grin, and Louis grins, too.

"I'm gonna have to introduce you fellas to Chairles." He tells us.

"Chairles?" Both me and my brother ask, and Louis simply pulls out an old chair leg, nails messily hammered into it, creating a unique melee weapon.

"Chairles" Louis simply states. "I like to name it that because it's a lot more fun that way. Bashing in a walker's head is cool and all, but doing it with Chairles makes it like, ten times as awesome!"

"Well, if we're showing off our weapons, I may as well introduce you to Mr. Remington," I grin as I show them my father's 700, a bit dirty but still a beautiful rifle nonetheless, "And his friend, Madame Beretta." I pull the M9 out of its holster, the sleek black body shining in the mid-morning sun."

"You probably shouldn't use your guns too much out here." Aasim reminds me. "We try to keep quiet here for a reason. Obviously, if it's life and death situation, do what you gotta do, but guns will only attract more attention, you know?"

I nod, "Yeah. That makes sense. I've got a knife for when I have to get up close and personal, but usually I like to avoid that if I have to."

Louis looks over at Benji. "What about you, Benji? What're you working with?"

Benjo shows off his crossbow, before softly smiling. "David Bowie?"

Aasim and I both facepalm at my brother's awful pun as Brody and Louis start cackling, Louis even giving him a high-five for the joke.

"Omar was right, you might have me beat for best sense of humor here!" Louis exclaims. "What else do you got?"

My brother unsheathes his katana, a gift given to my Dad when he went on a business trip to Japan when we were young, and shrugs. "I don't have a pun for this one. It's just a katana. It slices through walkers like butter, though, so that's fun."

"We should probably get going," Brody tells us. "With any luck, the traps are already sprung and we'll have some rabbits and whatnot for Omar."

With that, the five of us walk out the gates, and back into the woods. Well, time to hunt.

* * *

The little click noise that's made whenever Aasim snaps a trapped rabbit's neck is unsettling, but the meat we get from this is important for feeding us and the others, so I can deal with a little bit of morbidness for that. Brody clearly isn't a fan of it either, and I have no idea what the fuck Louis is doing. Benji and I are tasked with watching for any walkers, but it seems quiet, which is nice. The past couple of hours, I've gotten to chat with Brody, getting to know her better, and she gotten to learn a bit about me in the process.

The two of us sit on a large rock, overlooking a small clearing in the woods, just talking, getting to know each other.

"So, this is super personal, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but I'm going to be curious until I find out, but what exactly got you into Ericson's?" I ask her, and she looks taken aback. I look down, once again mentally kicking myself as she's clearly surprised by such a personal question. "I- I'm sorry. That was way too far. Don't answer that."

She shakes her head. "It's fine. I've had really bad anxiety as long as I can remember. Things just happen and I can't help but feel terrified about it. When the dead started walking, it hit an all-time high for me and since then, I get these instances where my nerves act up and I can't do anything. And when the walkers got Sophie and Minnie the other day, my nerves were pretty much controlling me for the next few days, so that's why I shot at you. Again, I'm really sorry for that."

I smile and shake my head. "Seriously, don't worry about it. It's not your fault. You can't control when you get anxiety, and it got the best of you. But, if it means anything, I think it's really cool you were so open about all that, and if you need someone to vent to or someone to talk to, you know I'm here for you."

She blushes, smiling widely. "That's very sweet of you, Brett. And I'll be sure to keep that in mind. I like talking with you. A lot." I feel her place her hand on top of mine.

This time, it's my turn to blush. "I like talking with you, a lot, too."

Brody surprises me by leaning in for another kiss, just like last night, but this time I'm more prepared, and my lips meet hers halfway. As our kiss breaks, I look her right in her eyes, those beautiful baby blues, and she looks right back at mine, a small grin forms on my face, but the both of us quickly turn around as we hear a few whispers.

Specifically, the sounds of Benji, Aasim, and Louis looking at us, surprised and confused, but none of them saying anything directly to us, instead whispering amongst themselves. Brody and I simply stare blankly at them, embarrassed beyond belief. The two of us glance back at one another, before staring back at the others.

"Well then, Brett and Brody. That did not take long, nor would I have seen that coming." Louis remarks. "Perhaps that arrow Brody shot you with was one of Cupid's."

Brody scoffs. "Shut up, Louis."

Aasim eyes the both of us weirdly, "So, what exactly is this?"

Brody and I glance at each other, and we just simply shrug. We don't really know what this is. We're just two teens in the zombie apocalypse that have feelings for one another, I guess. But still, neither of us answer, we just stare blankly at one another.

"Well we learned something new about our dear friend Brett today. He is basically the perfect human being and can do anything and everything. He'll beat up Mitch, he'll get with Brody, I honestly wonder what's next." He grins, and I just blush, even more embarrassed.

"Louis…" I quietly say to him, seeing Brody start to look a little anxious. He notices, and stands down.

"Alright then," Aasim raises several rabbits, their necks snapped and just waiting to be cooked by Omar. "It's not much, but we can make do with this for tonight and maybe the fishing haul will come out better tomorrow."

In the distance, I see some movement. I shush everyone as I raise my rifle, looking through the scope. Everything falls dead silent as I focus on the woods.

"What do you see?" Benji asks. I don't answer, too focused on what I'm seeing. Finally, he pokes his head out. A buck, slowly stepping out from behind the trees, makes his way to a patch of grass and starts eating. Everyone else is dead silent, until Louis whispers from my right.

"Holy shit… That's a lot of food."

"Brett, that rifle is way too loud. We should use Benji's bow." Aasim suggests.

I shake my head, not looking away from the buck. "No. It's too far away. Plus, I've got him in my sights."

I keep the crosshair lined up on his head, waiting for him to stay still for a moment, and I can feel the tension rising as everyone watches me in anticipation.

I take a deep breath, my finger slowly inching its way to the trigger, and after a second of hesitation, I squeeze.

The boom rings out for miles, and I hear the sounds of birds fleeing the scene all around me. The buck stands still for a moment, before dropping to the ground. I lower my rifle, a smirk forming on my face as I walk over to the buck's body. I hear soft footsteps behind me as the others follow, and soon enough, we reach the small clearing where the deer was grazing. Sure enough, it dead body lies there, a nice big hole right where its eyes were.

"This could feed us for like a week!" Louis exclaims. Aasim, on the other hand groans a bit.

"Sure, but we don't know who else heard that shot. We don't want to be attracting any unnecessary attention."

"A-Aasim's right," Brody agrees, and I frown. "We don't know who or what is out there, and… and I think we should keep it quiet back at Ericson's for a bit, just so nothing comes our way."

I eye her a bit curiously, but I nod. "That makes sense. We can talk about it with Marlon when we get back. In the meantime, let's worry about getting the food back. Omar's gonna have a field day with this."

Aasim walks off with the rabbits, leaving the rest of us to haul the deer back. Benji and I pick it up from separate ends, and Brody and Louis walk beside us to look out for walkers.

"So how did you get so good at shooting?" Brody asks me, "That buck was a good distance away, and you got it right through the eye. That's incredible!"

I grin, but look down as I feel my cheeks turning a bright pink. "It's just practice, really. Years of being on the road, having to shoot things, it all adds up after a bit."

"Well don't think I forgot about your promise, now. You promised to teach me how to shoot. I wanna be just as good of a shot as you are."

A wide smile forms on my face, and I softly nod. "Of course. We'll start tomorrow morning."

"Great! Tomorrow morning." She smiles before pecking me on the lips, once again catching me off-guard. She notices this and giggles, taking my hand in hers, and the moment feels perfect. Perfect until, of course, I hear Louis clear his throat from behind us.

"So. Seriously, how did this happen?" He asks us. "I mean, you've been here a day and you've already got a girlfriend?"

"I mean… I don't know if we'd consider each other that yet…" I inform Louis. "There's definitely something here between us, but the two of us decided to just keep it slow for now, let things develop themselves."

"Yeah. That looked real slow back there." My brother remarks sarcastically, much to the chagrin of myself and Brody. Louis, on the other hand, loves it, a deep and hearty laugh coming from him.

"Benji!" Brody whines at him, embarrassed by his remark, and I shoot him a glare, to which he sheepishly grins.

My brother's cheery expression soon turns more serious, "So, how DID this happen?"

"Well, you remember how I had a nightmare last night and needed some air?"

My brother simply nods as I continue.

"Well, I went out to the balcony, just to think and shit, when Brody and I met. We talked for a bit and, well, the rest is history I guess."

"So, I guess I have to ask, is there anything you can't or won't do?" Louis asks me, and I simply shrug and grin.

"I guess you'll have to find out."

* * *

Ericson's walls come into view, and I see Willy on guard duty, scanning the area with a pair of binoculars. As he sees us, he nearly jumps from his post, and turns to yell something back to the others. We reach the game to an entourage of the others, looking on in awe at the sight before them. They open the gates for us, and we immediately bring the buck over to Omar's area, his jaw dropping when he sees what we've brought him as the others cheer.

"Think you can make something nice with this?" I ask him, and he casually nods.

"Of course. Give me a few hours to skin it and get the actual meat, but it looks like we won't be relying on rabbit stew for the next few nights."

Violet walks up next to me with a soft smile. "Not bad. Looks like you weren't kidding when you said you and your brother were capable. Maybe you are more than just extra mouths to feed."

"Hey. What's going on?" I hear Marlon's voice from the back of the crowd.

"What happened? Brett and Benji are fucking awesome! That's what happened!" Wildly exclaims as Marlon makes his way up to the front.

As he sees what we brought back, his eyes nearly pop out of their sockets. "Mother of God… That thing's massive. Good work, guys. Really good work."

Benji and I grin at each other, proud of our work, and Aasim speaks up. "It's a good thing, too. The rabbit haul was not good today. We've only got four of them. And two of them weren't very big at all. We're gonna need to expand the safe zone if we want to get more food for the winter."

This strikes a nerve with Marlon who, despite being happy about the food, doesn't want to risk it with the safe zone. "And risk what happened with Sophie and Minerva? Yeah, I don't think so. The safe zone exists for a reason, Aasim. Because I don't think I could handle losing another one of you guys."

"So we take an extra person on supply runs and hunting trips, and we make sure we watch each other's backs. You know we're gonna need to push out sometime. And it's gonna have to be soon, or we're not gonna make it through the winter." Aasim suggests, but Marlon angrily shakes it off.

"I said no. We'll figure something out." Marlon bluntly states, angering Aasim.

"So what do you suggest? Cause what we have isn't gonna work a month or two from now."

"I said I'll think of something." The blond teen states before he storms off, not looking back at us for even a second, and Aasim sighs before doing the same, albeit in a different direction.

I stand there, kinda awkwardly, just trying to wonder what the hell just happened, as Ruby walks over to me.

"Don't let that get to you. Marlon feels guilty about the twins and wants what's best for us. He takes all this very seriously, as he should. Now c'mon. Y'all helped us out a ton. You earned some time to relax and hang out."

I nod and join the others, most of them sitting around a fire and telling stories and jokes, and Benji and I join in on the fun, finally getting the chance to feel like kids in a relatively normal world again. Getting to hang out with kids my own age, in a pretty safe area, it almost feels like the world didn't end six years ago.

Hours later, Omar pours everyone a bowl of soup with deer meat, spices, and other vegetables the group brought to him. Just like last night, the meal is incredible, and I scarf it down just as quickly as last night. This man Omar is God when it comes to food, and he clearly is not afraid to show it off. He just might become my new best friend.

After dinner, we all go our separate ways, but Brody pulls me aside, a concerned or nervous look on her face.

"What's up?" I ask her as she leads me inside, toward the dorms.

"I've been stressing since you killed that deer. It was loud and… and… and I'm just scared someone or something heard it and that they might come to us and try to attack us. There's been walker breaches in the past and every now and then, we see strangers walking around. We try to keep quiet and they pass by, no second thought to it. But every time, I just start thinking, 'This is it. Someone's gonna find us and kill us all.'"

I put my hand on Brody's shoulder in assurance, offering her a warm smile. "Brody, I'm not letting anything happen to you or anyone else here. I know you're scared, but I promise you, even if someone or something heard that shot and came for us, I'll handle them before they can even lay a finger on you, alright?"

"That's what Marlon said, but I saw the twins die right in front of me. They could've been saved, but I froze up, and every time I think about them, I can't help but think that if I did something, anything, Sophie and Minnie would be alive and well right now, and I just feel awful because of it."

I frown at what she tells me, and without saying a word, I hug her. I feel her bury her head into my collar, not quite crying, but I can tell she wants to. I rub her back as I hear her sniff.

"Brody… I wanna tell you something, and I think that it'll help. Is there someplace we could go and sit down in private?" I ask her in a whisper. She breaks from the hug, her puffy eyes meet mine, and she nods.

"Yeah. My room's just a few doors down." She leads me down the hall, before opening a door to our left, her name inscribed in the door crudely with a knife. She pulls out chairs for both of us, and I sit down across from her.

I hesitate for a second, as that familiar feeling in my gut comes back to me, just from thinking about Dad, but I know I need to tell her. Hopefully, this'll make her feel better.

"Ok, so this is the reason why I couldn't sleep last night, and ultimately the reason why I was out on the balcony, and why we met. And I'm not proud of this, it haunts me to this day. But, I had something similar to you and the twins when I was younger. I was confronted by a walker and I froze, and I got my Dad killed. So, here goes nothing."

Painfully, I tell Brody the story. I tell her the background, growing up in Wisconsin, eventually moving East when the dead rose, and how we wound up spending a lot of time in Ohio, culminating in the events that happened in Downtown Cincinnati, ending with Dad being bitten, and me pulling the trigger to make sure he wouldn't come back.

I feel my heart drop as I tell that last detail, reliving the experience in real time as the images of Dad's brains splattering the wall behind him come back in vivid detail. I look back up at Brody, tears welling in her eyes. This time, it's her turn to hug me, once again burying her head in my collar, although this time, the tears start coming. Without a word, I put my head on her shoulder and rub her back once again, trying my best to comfort her.

"Brett, I am so sorry. I am so sorry. That's terrible. I can't believe you had to do that." She manages to say through the tears.

"I know. It still hurts to think about it. But thank you, Brody. Being able to confide in you like this, it means a lot to me, and I hope I'm able to do the same." I smile as I feel her nod.

"You have. A lot." She sniffs. "Having you around has helped so much. Honestly, thank you."

"Of course, Brody. I'll always be here for you." I plant a kiss on her cheek, accidentally getting a salty taste in my mouth from her tears, not that it really matters to me.

"It's getting late." She notes. "Do you… Do you think you could stay and cuddle tonight? It'll help me feel better." She gives me a pretty smile, despite the tears, and my heart melts.

With slightly reddening cheeks, I nod. "Absolutely. Whatever you need, I'll give you."

Minutes later, she and I are cuddled in her bed, and as the two of us lay there, she asks me one last thing.

"Brett?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you want to be my boyfriend?"

My heart rate doubles as the question hits me. We agreed to take things slowly the night before, and yet here she is, dropping the big question just like that. I chuckle a bit, a big grin forming on my face.

"Absolutely. There's nothing I want more right now."

I hear a soft humming noise come from her mouth before she responds. "Good. I want you to be mine, too."

"So that's it, then. We're boyfriend and girlfriend."

"I guess we are, then."

I grin as the two of us start to drift off to sleep. In less than two days, I've made lots of new friends, found a new place to call home, and got my first girlfriend ever. This Ericson place, I could get used to it, real quickly.


	4. Saving a Life or Two

**Chapter 4 - Saving a Life or Two**

**One Year Later**

Marlon tackles a walker to the ground, plunging a knife into its head before it can do anything, casually wiping the blood and brain residue off on what's left of its clothes. Violet and I watch on as he does the same to another one, once again trying to show off his toughness.

Benji and I have been at Ericson for roughly a year now, and life hasn't been better since the world ended. The place is thriving, everyone's pretty happy, and we've been able to keep to ourselves. Although, the place isn't without its issues. Since it's been about a year since we joined, it's also been about a year since Minnie and Sophie were killed. And with that, Violet has been in a mood, not that it's unjustified. Tenn's gotten over it, for the most part, but I can tell it still bothers him a bit this time of year. But Violet worries me more. Because she was there when they died, Violet blames Brody for them being dead, which is ridiculous. Furthermore, over the past week, she's snapped at Brody at least a dozen times, which doesn't help her anxiety issues, which I have been trying to fight tooth and nail to help her with, and I like to think that I've helped a pretty good deal.

Speaking of Brody, things have been absolutely fantastic with us. She's easily been the brightest part of the past year for me, and things only seem to get better as the days go on. The group did not take too long to figure out our relationship, whether Louis and Benji spread it around or if we really were that obvious about it. It didn't really bother me. I was falling in love with her and that's all I really needed. Just about everyone was happy for us. I say just about because Mitch is still a complete chode about it all. I guess he can't really accept the thought of Brody being with someone he hates so much. I haven't really done anything directly to him about it, but I make sure to sneak a kiss or hold her hand in front of him as often as I can. It pisses him off and it makes things feel that much better. Willy, being Mitch's right hand man, isn't a fan of this either, but I couldn't honestly care less. I already know he's going to side with Mitch regardless, so there's no use fighting it.

I taught Brody how to shoot, and while it wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do, she proved to be a quick learner, and she's become a pretty good shot over the last year, especially with bows. Next time she wants to shoot the ground in front of me, she actually will, probably.

Benji, the one that's usually quiet and keeps to himself more, has become a completely different person since we joined, and that might be my favorite part about all this. Six years of living on the road and killing walkers might've hardened him up, but the two of us needed to spend time with kids our own age, especially him. Seeing Benji being social, having friends, and having more people to talk to makes me feel a lot happier about deciding to stay here, and maybe that's what we needed all along. Some friends our own age.

My thoughts are interrupted by the sounds of a small explosion, coming from maybe a couple hundred yards away, and the three of us freeze.

"What was that?" Violet asks. And I glance over to Marlon for an answer.

"I don't know. We should get back, just in case. We're getting pretty close to the edge of the safe zone as is."

I ignore him, walking toward the explosion, pulling out my handgun cautiously.

"Brett? What the hell are you doing?" He asks me, following. In the distance, I hear… a car ignition? Along with that, a lot of walkers. I hear the sound of the ignition firing up, and the car speeds off, only to hear a loud crashing noise moments later.

I start sprinting toward the source of the noise, despite yells of protest from Marlon and Violet, who follow me, despite their protests.

By the time I find the car, we're well past the safe zone, over by the old train station that was on Marlon's map. A Challenger, crashed into a tree and flipped over, getting swarmed by a pack of walkers. From inside, I hear a girl yelling.

"We gotta go help her." I tell them, and Violet shakes her head.

"No way. There's way too many of them. We'll all get killed."

I glare back at her. "Fine then. Suit yourself. I'm going after her."

"Motherfucker…" I hear her mutter as I start walking towards them, pulling out my knife. Marlon fires a shot from behind me, an arrow finding the skull of a walker near me as I plunge my knife into a skull, hearing the disgusting crunches and squishes of my blade piercing the skull and brain as the walker dies with a final gasp.

Violet joins in on the fun as she stabs a walker with her knife, before noticing something by the car. "What the fuck… There's a kid!"

I look over and, sure enough, a small black boy, slowly tries to sit up as he crawls from the wreck.

"Cover me, I'm getting the driver." I tell Marlon as I move toward the several walkers trying to get in. An arrow flies past me and takes the first one down as another one meets my knife, the third one also finding an arrow in his skull from Marlon, clearing the way for me to get her from the wreck.

There she is, Lightly tanned skin, black hair, and amber eyes weakly looking back at mine. A nasty gash on the right side of her head, but it doesn't look like a bite. Maybe just a cut. Hopefully it's just a cut.

"Please… Help… AJ…" She whispers before her eyes close.

I glance behind me to see the walkers starting to get close, so without a second thought, I grab the girl from under her shoulders, dragging her out and picking her up, running over to Marlon, Violet, and the boy who, like the girl, passed out.

"Does she have a pulse?" Marlon asks as I set her down, putting two fingers to her neck. Sure enough, I can feel her heart beating, just enough for me to feel it. I nod to him before looking over to Violet.

"What about him?"

She nods. "Yeah. He's alive."

"Well come on. Let's get them back to Ericson. We'll figure out what to do with them after."

I pick up the girl, Violet gets the boy, and Marlon covers us as we make our way back to Ericson. I hear her softly groaning in my arms, and I look cautiously at her, out of fear she may have turned, but the groaning stops, and I quickly turn her face away from me, just in case she does turn, I don't want her coming at my neck.

"So, what if they're bitten? There were a lot of walkers around the car. Who's to say one didn't get them." Violet asks.

"Well, I guess we just gotta do what needs to be done. But I don't think they're bitten. She's got a bad gash, but I think that's just a cut from the crash. I can't see anything that would suggest otherwise, anyways." I tell her, and she just shrugs.

The three of us come back with the two unconscious kids, and Willy lets us in.

Marlon leads us to the dorms, and brings us to a room with an S and an M inscribed on it. Sophie and Minnie's old room. We set the girl down on one bed and the boy down on another just as he starts to wake up.

"Owww…." He says with a stir. "Hey, where am I? Who are you?"

"Easy, buddy." I assure him. "You were in a car crash. My friends and I brought you back to our place."

"Who are you?" He asks me again.

"My name's Brett. I helped pull your friend out of the car after you guys crashed."

His expression turns to pure panic as he looks over at his unconscious friend, laying on the bed with her wrist bound to the bedpost, in case she doesn't make it. "Clementine!"

"She's alright. She's just gotta rest, buddy. Like Brett said, you guys were in a really bad accident."

"How long will she be asleep?" He asks us, and I shrug back to him.

"I don't know. But we need to let her sleep until she feels better. Why don't you come along with me and we can let your friend sleep, alright?"

"But I want to stay with her." He protests.

I smile softly and nod. "I know you do, but she needs to rest. We'll have someone keep an eye on her, and you can see her when she's awake. How's that sound?" I ask, but he shakes his head.

"No! I wanna stay with Clem!" He says once again, albeit much louder.

I sigh. "She's gonna be fine, dude. She needs some time to sleep. Now come on. Let's hang out for a bit and when your friend, Clem, wakes up, we'll see how things are. Sound good?"

He glares at me, but he reluctantly agrees with a sigh. "Fine."

I turn to Marlon. "Get Tenn or Ruby to watch her. I have to think that they're the best-suited for this sorta thing." He nods and walks out to go and fetch one of them. Violet follows, but I think that's because she's got her watch shift soon. So, I'm left with sole responsibility of this kid. I think of what to do for a second, before a genius idea hits me.

"Do you like music?"

He shrugs. "I don't really know music."

I smile. "I think you'll like it. And you'll like Louis a lot, too. He's super funny."

He looks at me curiously, but nods. "Ok. Let's go."

I lead him out the door, through the halls and the courtyard, with a couple curious looks from other kids busy at work, into one of the other buildings. Upon opening the double doors, the sound of piano music floods my ears, and I can't help but smile. Louis is pretty damn talented. He's cocky about it, but he can back it up.

I lead the boy through the halls, the music getting louder and louder as I approach a set of double doors, which I push open as the music blasts. I look over at the boy, who looks on in awe at Louis.

The song fades away as the both of us start to give Louis a respectful applause, to which he bows to us.

"Stuck on babysitting duty?" He asks me with a grin, and before I can answer, the boy speaks up.

"I'm not a baby." He says with a pout, getting a laugh from Louis.

"My bad, little dude. What's your name?"

"It's Alvin Junior, but Clem calls me AJ."

Louis looks at me, confused, before looking back at AJ. "Who's Clem?"

"A girl we rescued from a car crash over by the old train station. It looked pretty messy, but she's gonna pull through." I inform him, to which he nods, before scowling.

"Wait, the train station? That's well outside the safe zone. Marlon was cool with that? Usually he's really strict about that."

I shrug. "I heard people that needed help, and I helped them. Marlon and Violet weren't totally on board, but that didn't really matter. I made the right call back there. They would've died if we didn't help them."

I put my rifle on a table and sit down next to it pulling out an old rag from one of my jean pockets and wiping my gun with it as Louis starts a new song. AJ notices me and walks over, looking at what I'm doing.

"What are you doing?" He asks as I clean the stock.

"I'm cleaning my gun. You might as well keep your weapons in good condition nowadays. Plus, it's a nice way to kill time." I tell him as I move onto the barrel. "Have you ever shot a gun before?"

"Uh-huh." He says with a smile and an affirmative nod. "Clem taught me. She lets me kill walkers sometimes, too."

"Really?" I ask him with a curious glance, to which he nods again. "You're what, four? That seems a bit dangerous."

"I'm five. I'm pretty much grown up." He scowls, which gets another smile out of me.

"Of course. My bad."

I don't know how much time passes by, but it's enough where I've fully cleaned my rifle, handgun, and my knife as I see Ruby walk in. I give her a nice smile as I reholster my gun.

"Hey y'all I was wonderin' if y'all knew where- OW! GAH! YOU LITTLE MOTHERFUCKER!"

My eyes dart back up to see Ruby clutching her hand, a nasty bite mark, clear as day, now right by her palm. Louis and I glance at each other, and then turn to AJ as he backs away.

Ruby storms out of the room, and turns the corner, and I hear her yell something to someone down the hall. "Hey! HEY!" is all I hear before she gets muffled by the doors.

Louis stares back at me, and I shrug before he starts playing the piano again, and AJ just watches him, like he hadn't just bitten Ruby a second ago. I get back to messing with my M9, unloading it, reloading it, spinning it on the table, just killing time.

A minute later, the door opens, and the girl, Clementine, walks in. AJ turns around and his face lights up.

"Clem!" He runs to his friend and she pulls him in for a tight hug. "You're ok!" He says, laughing at seeing her again.

"I'm ok, goofball." She assures him. "And you know what you are?" He looks at her, confused, as a devilish smile forms on her face. "Ticklish!". She tickles the boy, who despite his protests, can't stop laughing.

Despite the nice moment between the two, Clementine's expression turns more serious. "Aj, listen to me. Did you bite that girl?"

He looks back at her and frowns. "She snuck up on me. I didn't want to hurt her."

"I know you didn't, but no more bites, ok?"

"Ok…" He says quietly, so I speak up.

"Glad to see you're up and walking. Wasn't sure how long it would take. That was a pretty nasty crash, but I'm glad to see you and your boy are alright."

She smiles. "Thanks, I appreciate it."

I return the smile. "No problem."

Louis quips from behind me, "Well, not 'no' problem, he was a bit of a handful. But it seems like we got off light compared to what Ruby went through."

I glance over at Louis. "Louis…"

"AJ doesn't like people coming up behind him." Clementine explains.

"Don't do it." AJ adds, and Louis grins.

"Loud and clear, little man." He says before turning back to Clementine. "Thankfully, I was able to keep him pretty calm by playing my alluring music." He starts playing the piano again. "I'm Louis."

"Clementine."

"And I'm Brett." I introduce myself.

"Oh! You know what? Marlon left your bag in here, somewhere." Louis mentions, but Clementine is way ahead of him, walking over to a corner and picking up a backpack. She fishes through the backpack, pulling out a knife, an old baseball cap, and a revolver, which she casually hands to AJ.

"Uh…" Louis speaks up. AJ inspects the gun, spinning the chamber a couple times before putting it in his back pocket. "Does he know what that is?"

"He's a better shot than you with it, I'd guarantee it."

"That doesn't take much, to be quite honest." I joke and AJ and Clementine both giggle, as Louis scowls back at me, flipping me off before going back to the piano, playing the same song as before.

"Don't you know any other songs?" Clementine asks him, and he sports a cheeky grin.

"Well, I do know another song I could play, buuuuut you're armed."

Clementine gives him a confused look as he starts a new song. I don't know what it is when he starts, but it hits me the moment that he starts singing along.

"Oh my darling, Oh my darling

Oh my darling, Clementine.

You are lost and gone forever,

Dreadful sorry, Clementine."

I glance over at her, expecting glares, but she actually smiles.

"I love this song." She says, beaming.

Smiling, Louis continues.

"Light she was and like a fairy,

And her shoes were number nine.

Herring boxes without topses,

Sandals were for Clementine."

I'll give Louis all the credit in the world. He's arrogant as Hell about his music talent, but the man can play piano and can sing better than anyone I know or can remember. And he's definitely gotten better since I got here.

"What do you think, AJ?" Clementine looks down at the boy, who tries to look away, but can't fully cover a smile.

"I dunno, it's loud."

"It is."

"Loud is bad."

"Not always."

Louis slides over on his seat, patting the area he was just sitting, indicating for AJ to try.

"Go ahead AJ, give it a try." Clementine encourages him. Hesitantly, AJ sits next to Louis, and Louis has him press a few keys, and soon enough, AJ is getting the hang of it.

"Hey!" the four of us turn to see Marlon at the door. "Have you guys seen Rosie?"

Louis and I shake our heads. "Nope. Haven't seen her all day." I inform him.

"Shit. We've got a bit of a situation out there. Uhm, I hate to ask, with you just coming to and all, but can you help?" He asks Clementine.

She nods firmly, and Marlon smiles.

"Alright, great. This means you guys, too, Brett and Louis. Get your asses in gear. There's a lot of 'em."

I get up from my seat, holstering my M9 and grabbing my rifle and knife as the four of us walk down the hall, out towards the gate.

* * *

"You guys ready?" Marlon asks us as I pull out my knife. Clementine does the same and Louis pulls out Chairles. "We've got a hunting party out there that's trying to get back. "Mitch, Aasim, Brody, and Benji. We need to clear the way to get them back in. But as you can see, there's a lot of walkers. A lot more than usual."

"Huh. It's almost as though something drew them over here. Something like, I don't know, an explosion or a car crash." Violet sarcastically remarks coldly. I glare at her, as does Clementine, but Louis once again interjects and frankly, I can't stay irritated for too long when he's always keeping it light.

"Hi, Clementine. I'm Violet. Nice to meet you."

She glares back at him before walking out the gates. "What he said."

Willy pops out from his guard post, "Alright boy and girls, I can see them, but there's an assload of walkers. Get our friends back!"

I step out to see a few dozen walkers, mostly just standing around, but soon enough Marlon and Violet start up the action, shooting arrows and hacking away, so I start to do the same.

One walker finds my knife in the side of its head, killing it instantly. Another gets a leg swipe to the knee, knocking it over as I crush its skull. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Clementine snap a walker's knee with a kick before stabbing the side of the head. While she's doing that, however, I spot one sneaking up on her. Without a second thought, I rush up behind her, tackling the walker to the ground before I plant the knife in its skull, making a nasty squishing and crunching noise as I do it.

She looks at the walker and then back up at me. "Thanks for that."

I grin. "Don't mention it."

Without warning she shoves me to side, and I look over to see her stabbing her knife into a walker's head, its corpse falling down right in front of me. I look back up a her, visibly shocked by the close encounter.

"Even?" She asks.

"Even." I nod.

"Yo! Over here!" Marlon calls out to us, and Clementine and I find him, just across the stream, motioning for us to join him. The two of us run over, joining him, to see Benji put down one last walker with his bow. I smile to see him safe, but I grin as Brody runs into my arms, and I pull her in for a hug.

"I'm so glad you're ok!" I say to her, not breaking the hug.

"So am I, where did all these walkers come from?" She asks me.

"It's a long story, but I'll explain when we get back. Let's focus on getting back safe first, alright?"

She nods as we start walking back, and I hear my brother catch up to us, loading a new arrow into his crossbow.

"Who's the new girl?" He asks, as we see her talking with Louis and Violet. Interestingly, she and Violet seem to be getting along decently well, even after Violet's snarkiness earlier.

"Her name's Clementine. She's… interesting. Haven't gotten to talk to her very much, but she seems pretty cool." I explain.

Out of nowhere, I see Rosie run and leap onto a walker, catching its skull in her jaws and biting down hard. She does the same with another straggler crawling towards Clementine.

The area finally seems safe, and after petting Rosie a bit, Marlon gives us an announcement. "All right, fun's over. Let's get inside. I'm fuckin' starving."

My stomach growls audibly, getting a chuckle out of Brody and Benji.

"How'd it go out there?" Marlon asks Aasim, who just groans.

"How do you think?" He snaps back. "The safe zone's nearly dry. We barely found enough for tonight. We're gonna have to scout out further if we want food for the winter."

"We'll talk about it later." Marlon dryly responds.

"Bullshit, we should talk about this right now-"

"I said later, damn it." he growls, bumping past Aasim, and through the gates.

Brody and I look at each other weirdly, but don't say anything as we follow him back in. As we walk in, AJ's face brightens up, running right past us to hug Clementine.

"They're so good with the monsters!" He exclaims.

I look past him to see Marlon walking towards them. Before I can say anything, though, he makes the same mistake Ruby did.

"Come on, y'all. Food's nearly-" As he puts his hand on AJ's shoulder, AJ panics, immediately giving him an elbow to the groin, and I wince so hard, I have to look away.

"AJ!" Clementine exclaims to the boy, who runs away, embarrassed. Brody pulls me away, trying to give him some space. The two of us sit down on a ledge, right next to Rosie. I scratch her ear as Marlon slowly makes his way towards us.

"Kid packs a punch." He says with a groan as he sits down. Brody and I can't help but giggle at that.

"Yeah, I felt that one. You alright?"

With a pained smile, he nods. "Yeah. I'm fine. It hurts like the Devil, but I'm fine."

"So what happened with them? You said you'd explain when we got back." She asks me.

I nod. "That's right. So, we were on a little lookout thing this morning, killing walkers around the area, try and secure the area a bit more, when I hear this explosion in the distance, like a grenade or something went off. Then I hear a lot of walkers, and a car ignition, so I'm wondering what the hell is going on. I run towards the scene, and I see Clementine's car crashed, and a bunch of walkers trying to get in. Marlon, Violet, and I killed a good amount of the walkers, and I dragged her from the wreck while Violet got the boy. We barely made it out after that. But, we saved 'em. I don't know how things would've went if we showed up a minute later."

Brody looks at me, impressed. "Well look at you. My boyfriend, the lifesaver."

I feel my cheeks redden at my girlfriend's remarks, and I give her a quick kiss.

"I always think it's so funny how the two of you wound up together. Like, she shot you, and yet the both of you fell for each other that night. Are you sure that arrow wasn't one of cupid's?"

I roll my eyes, as Marlon makes the same joke Louis did a year ago about us, and ever since, several others have, too. It wasn't funny when Louis said it, it hasn't been funny since, and Brody agrees, although if we say anything, they do it more, so I guess that's gonna stick for a while.

Clementine and AJ walk over to us, which Brody immediately notices, and greets them with a warm smile. "Clementine, right? I'm Brody. He's a sweet little fella." She says, nodding over at AJ. "I figured there wasn't a lotta room for sweetness out there.

Clem returns the smile. "I'm the lucky one. He's just naturally good."

"Naturally good. That's really rare stuff nowadays." Brody remarks. Clem nods in agreement, and then nudging AJ, who looks down at the ground.

"I'm really sorry I hit you. Can we please stay here and eat dinner and not go out into the forest and get killed by monsters?" the boy pleads to Marlon. Marlon looks at the two of us with a soft smile, before turning back to AJ. "Don't sweat it, buddy. You can make up for it by teaching me your technique. You are a regular heavyweight."

The boy smiles wide upon hearing this, giving me a good feeling in my chest, but that's brought even further when I hear Louis's booming voice shouting out, "Hey y'all! Stew's done!"

We all grab bowls and sit down at our respective tables, and I find myself sitting next to Brody, across from Tenn and Violet, who simply looks down at her stew, lightly poking at it.

"So, how've you been, Tenn? I haven't seen you all day." I ask the boy, who slowly eats while drawing a new picture, probably his sisters.

"I'm pretty good. Except when Clementine pointed a knife at me. But it was my fault. She didn't know who I was, and she was scared, so she defended herself."

I frown. "Well that doesn't sound like it was your fault at all. She's in a new place with a bunch of new people. Hell, Brody shot me before I met her, you know that. And now, a year later, she's my girlfriend. Don't blame yourself. Did she at least apologize?"

The boy nods, but I hear Violet scoff and mutter something under her breath. I glance at her, wondering if she said something about Brody, but I decide to let it go. I chow down the last bit of stew with a satisfied sigh, and Brody does the same. The both of us get up to bring Omar our dishes, as I look over to see Louis pull out a deck of cards. Louis notices me and grins, motioning for me to come over, but Brody scoffs.

"Oh God. Goodnight."

"Sorry Louis. The lady comes first. Maybe another night." I shrug to my friend.

"Aww, come on, Brett. You can play one round of cards, can't you? I thought we'd get to know our new friend Clem a little better." He pleads, and I look over to Brody, who just smiles to me.

"Fine. Go ahead. Just come to bed after, all right?"

"Of course, baby. I'll see you in a bit." We end the conversation with a quick kiss before we go our separate ways, Brody to her room and me to the card table, where Marlon, Louis, and Clementine already are waiting.

With that, Louis motions over to Violet. "Violet! It's time!" She joins us, sitting down between myself and Marlon.

"What's the game tonight, Louis?" Marlon asks as Louis shuffles a deck, handing a stack of cards to all of us.

"War. It's pretty simple. We all draw a card, highest card wins and asks Clem a question." He explains, this was just like my first night here.

"And if I win?" She asks.

"Then you ask us a question."

Clem looks around her for a second, confused and concerned. "Wait… where's AJ?"

I point right behind her, seeing the boy sitting across from Tenn and Benji, the two of them drawing on some paper. "He's with Tenn. My brother'll watch them. You've got nothing to worry about."

"You can take your eyes off him for one game. I'll bet you both can use a break from each other."

She sighs before conceding. "Yeah, maybe. He doesn't really spend a lot of time with kids his own age, so maybe it's a good thing. He spends so much time with me, it's almost like he's an adult more than a kid. It's kinda nice to see him acting like a little boy again."

With that, the game begins, and we all draw a card. Violet pulls the queen of hearts, winning the round. "Way to go me," she says with a small smile. "So, about AJ, where's his parents? You two don't really look related, so what happened?"

Clem frowns. "It was a very dark couple of days. AJ's parents were part of a group I was in, back down in Tennessee or so. His dad, Alvin, was this really big guy who was a really nice person, and his mom was this woman, Rebecca. She had a temper but she was nice when she wasn't angry. Anyways, this man, Carver, kidnapped our group and killed a few in the process, including a girl not much older than us, my friend's sister. He beat up Alvin until he was hanging by a thread, and Alvin used that last little bit left in him to help us escape Carver, letting himself die because of it. A few days later, Rebecca gave birth to AJ, but it was cold, and she was weak, so she passed away a bit later, so someone put her down, but another group thought we were shooting at them, so they started shooting back. In that gunfight, the same man that lost his sister to Carver, he lost his wife, too, a woman named Carley I had known since this started. It was… really sad. From there, our group kept getting smaller and smaller until AJ and I were all that was left."

The four of us listen on in stunned silence. Louis joked that Benji and I had seen Hell and back, but Clementine has us beat by a mile, judging by the sound of this.

Clem wins the second round, drawing the jack of clubs. "Hey, I win." She says with a surprisingly upbeat tone.

"Hey, you do. So, what do you wanna know?" Louis responds.

"Grossest injury you've ever witnessed?" She asks us.

"I saw a walker get hit in the head so hard, his eyeball flew out." Violet immediately replies with a morbidly satisfied smile.

"I saw someone have their intestines pulled all the way out. Like ALL the way. It goes on for a while. We've got a lot of guts." Louis adds, with a somewhat less morbid smile, but still kinda unsettling regardless.

"I saw a full-on compound fracture. This guy's shin bone was jutting out of his skin. Pretty brutal." I tell her, and she nods.

"I saw a man get his head smashed in with a salt lick once." She says to us, and the four of us look at her, intrigued but kinda horrified. "He was an asshole though, he deserved it."

With that, we all draw another card, and Louis immediately yells "Booyah!" as he pulls a Kind of Diamonds. However, despite this, he timidly hangs his head, looking away.

"Come on Louis, spit it out." I urge him.

"So, uh, Clem. Have you ever, you know, had a boyfriend?"

All eyes shoot to Louis after asking this, with no one saying a word.

"What? It happens. it's a perfectly valid question." He justifies. "You can ask me if I've ever had a girlfriend. I haven't, by the way." He says with a smile.

"Yeah, I'm sure she's real surprised about that one." Violet jokes as all eyes turn to Clem, whose cheeks are a bright pink now.

"Yeah. I actually have a boyfriend right now, back at my community. It's been about three years. His name's Gabe." She informs us, and the table starts cackling as Louis hangs his head, embarrassed.

"Oh, man! All the embarrassment, none of the reward!" Marlon exclaims as Louis flips him the bird.

"I thought if it could work for Brett, it'd maybe work for me, too."

I simply smile and shake my head toward Louis. This is going fantastically.

Marlon wins the next one with the ten of spades. "So, Clem. What community is this that you're talking about? We're in a pretty closed-off area so you've gotta be pretty far from home right now."

"Richmond. Over in Virginia. It's a big city with a lot of good people. My friend, Ian, the one who lost his wife and sister a few years ago, is in charge over there. We were on a supply run this morning, looking for food, supplies, anything of use, really. Fuck, he's gonna be pissed when he finds out the car's totaled. But yeah, it's pretty far from here. A day or two's walk, at least. There used to be this woman, Joan, that was in charge. She was evil, and Ian was one of the people who helped overthrow her, and bring stability back to the city."

We play the next round, where I win, with a Queen of Diamonds. "So, this Ian guy, you've talked about him a lot. How long have you known him? What's he like?"

She smiles softly, and I can tell she's going way back. "I met Ian Sullivan pretty early on. It was maybe the second or third day of this whole thing, and he and his fiancée, Carley, were a part of a group that was holding out in a pharmacy. We were part of the same group for the next few months, until things fell apart, and I thought he and Carley were dead. He and Carley almost died so my friend Lee could find me. Two years later, I found him and Carley, now married, at a cabin in Tennessee, with a new group. This same group fell apart, especially after Carver kidnapped us, and after he lost Carley, he was a different man. He was getting into arguments with other members, and this other man, my friend Kenny, lost his mind after losing his wife, and he snapped on this kid. Ian was scared, so he and a few others abandoned us, and I hated him."

A few of us look at her, surprised. This guy, who she spoke so highly of, he ditched her?

"Our paths crossed a few years later, in Virginia. I saw red, and I was fucking furious, but in all honesty, I was relieved. I was on my own for a few months, and I was glad to see him. He didn't get any sort of forgiveness, but when we started getting shot at, we knew we needed to set aside any differences to make sure we didn't die. We made up after that when we realized how big of an enemy we had, and now we're pretty good friends again. I was a bridesmaid when he married his wife, Kate."

I nod at her story. "Seems like a pretty good guy when he's got his head right."

She nods back. "Usually he is. That was just a really hard week. I don't hold it against him anymore."

We play our next round, and Clementine wins with the ten of spades. She smiles as she asks her next question. "You guys ever meet anyone famous out there?"

We all shake our heads, and Louis speaks up.

"It's too bad. You'd figure a movie star or something would show up somewhere."

Violet scoffs. "They had like millions of dollars. They're probably living in a bunker with butlers and water beds out the ass."

"Yeah maybe." Louis agrees.

"Ian played professional football. Well, he hadn't played a game when this started. But I met a guy who used to be a baseball player, and he made money from it."

"That's cool. I loved baseball." I tell Clem. "Was he good at it?"

"I don't know." She shrugs. "We never got to play. He was good with a bat, though."

"Baseball sucks…" Violet mutters under her breath, but Louis can hear her, regardless.

"You suck."

"Not as much as baseball." She fires back at him.

We play our next hand, and Violet wins with the queen of diamonds.

"Victory Violet. Here's a fun one. Out of the five of us, who do you think is gonna die first?"

I look over at Violet. "That's fucking morbid."

She softly chuckles in response. "I know."

"Louis. Definitely." The rest of the table nods in agreement, even Louis, which gets a weird look from Clem.

"What? I'd have said the same."

The next round is played, and Louis wins with the Jack of Clubs.

"I am the greatest card player of all time." He gloats, which causes Violet's eyes to roll.

"Just ask your damn question."

"Ever… actually, nevermind." He looks away.

"What? Ask it." Clem asks him.

"It's a really not fun one." He warns her.

"Ask."

"Ever have to kill someone you love?"

A pained look comes to her face as she looks down at the table. Clearly, this question struck something in her and I can tell she's reliving a painful memory.

"I killed Lee. From the day this started, Lee protected me, taught me how to survive. He taught me how to use a gun. I was lost one day, and he got bit trying to save me, so I put him down, as his final request. It was the same day I found out my parents were dead. It was the worst day of my life."

Another stunned silence follows. We all see her get up, walking off without saying another word.

Yeah, that's probably for the best.

We all go our separate ways for the night, but before I go to Brody's room, I make a pit stop to me and Benji's, where I see him curled up with his book in bed.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"You meet the new girl yet? Clementine?" I ask him.

"Yeah, a bit. We talked a bit, but I got to know her boy, AJ, a lot more. Did he really bite Ruby?"

I laugh out loud. "Yeah. She snuck up on him and paid the price. From what I saw, they made up."

"Good, Good. So, Clementine seems pretty cool."

"Yeah, she seems pretty neat. She's from this big community over in Richmond. Apparently there's a guy in charge there she goes way back with. She's also got a boyfriend back there, so I'm not sure if she'll be around for very long. Seems like she might want to get back to him."

"Oh," My brother frowns, not looking up from his book. "She's got a boyfriend."

I stare blankly back at him, seeing him feeling dejected. "Yeah. She's taken. Sorry buddy."

He shakes his head. "It's whatever."

"If it's any consolation, Louis tried to hit on her, too. It failed spectacularly and everyone laughed, so be happy that wasn't you." This gets a smile out of him, which makes me smile, too.

"That makes it a bit better, I'll be honest."

"I knew it would. I'm gonna spend the night with Brody, alright?"

"Use a condom." My brother teases me, knowing I damn well don't have one. I casually flip him off and walk out of the room, shutting the door before walking down the hall to Brody's room. I walk in to see her already in bed, and I slip in right next to her.

Without another word spoken, she snuggles right into me, and the both of us drift off to sleep, spooning for the rest of the night.

**Well, there we go. Clem and AJ are finally introduced, and the story's about to pick up soon. Any and all constructive crticism is appreciated. See you guys next Friday :]**


	5. Panic

**Chapter 5 - Panic**

A nice midmorning breeze flows through the woods as the four of us walk down a path to the fishing shack. Benji, Brody, Violet, and I have been tasked with getting some fish from the stream nearby. It's always nice to go out with Brody, and I'll never have an issue with spending time with Benji, but having Violet around Brody has brought on some increased tensions, to say the least.

Nonetheless, things seem to be going decently. But things start to turn South after Brody asks us a question.

"You know, I've been thinkin'... I wish we could all go on a road trip together. Wouldn't that be nice?"

Violet scoffs at my girlfriend. "Road trip? Why even bother? It's not like there's anything worth seeing anymore."

"Oh c'mon. I'm sure there's plenty of stuff to see. I'm sure Brett and Benji could show us around. Or Clem and her boy. There's a lot of covered ground between the four of them."

"That's true. Starting off in Wisconsin, the two of us have traveled around quite a bit the last seven years. We traveled East and then made our way down South, I wouldn't mind continuing South all the way down to Florida." I remark, and my brother nods in agreement.

"Who can drive, though? Outside of Clementine. I don't know if I'd trust her driving." Violet says, and Brody sternly glares at her.

"Be nice, Vi."

"Benji and I know the basics." I tell her. "How to turn it on, how to steer, which pedals are which." Most of the technical stuff probably doesn't matter anymore, being the end of the world and everything, you know?"

Finally, we get to the shack, looking run-down as ever. Brody walks up to the old truck parked outside of it, just as run-down as the shack itself.

"I wish this old rust bucket was still working. We could just jump in and start driving. We could take turns sitting in the back. It'd be like driving one of those cars with the top that goes down."

"We'd run out of gas eventually." Violet sighs.

"It's still fun to imagine though, isn't it?"

Violet simply snidely chuckles as she walks off, leaving the three of us.

"Well, Brett said he'd drive down to Florida, where'd you go, Benji? If you could go anywhere in the world? If gas wasn't an issue?"

"Honestly? I'd want to go to Europe. I'd see all the sights to see out there, the Louvre, Venice, the Eiffel Tower, everything I could."

"Europe would be incredible. You get to see so much. All the art and history, plus I hear Paris is super romantic." She says with a cute smile, which I return and offer her a wink.

"Oh yes, because you may get torn to shreds by walkers, but at least you got to see old art and shit with someone you love." Violet remarks in disgust, to which I glance back at her.

"C'mon Vi, would it kill you to live a little?" My girlfriend asks her.

"Don't you start with me." Violet snaps back before walking down the stream.

Brody sighs, walking into the shack. "Can you boys help me get the equipment? We've got some spears in the shack."

The two of us follow her in, closing the door behind us, and we see Brody searching all over, before pulling out a few makeshift spears.

"Benji, do you think you could bring these out to Violet? I need to talk with Brett."

He eyes the both of us for a second, before nodding and taking the spears outside to Violet, leaving me and my girlfriend.

"So, Violet's still pissed at you?"

"Of course she is. She still blames me for everything that day, and being around the anniversary of us losing Sophie and Minnie, she's just feeling depressed about all this. I wanna tell her I'm sorry, but how do you apologize for something that fucked up? I don't know. Maybe I deserve all the shit she's throwing at me."

"Brody…" I tell her as I hug her. "You know it's not your fault. Don't tell me that it's your fault, cause you know that's just not true. Things happen, it's nobody's fault."

"Still, I was the one that had to break the news to her. And ever since I did, she's become distant. We all used to be friends, and I guess I just kinda miss it."

"So what do you want me to do?" I ask her.

"Do you think you can talk to her? I know she's close with your brother and all, but do you think you can just talk to her? Just see how she feels about me?"

Before I can answer, I hear Violet shouting from outside. "Hey! Are you two fucking or something? Come on! We've got shit to do!"

I roll my eyes at her remark, but I smile back down to Brody. "Sure thing. I'll talk to her."

Relieved, I feel her nuzzle into me. "Thanks, Brett. I knew I could count on you."

I kiss her forehead. "Of course."

The two of us walk out of the shack, and Brody heads further down to check some fish traps, leaving me, Violet, and Benji to do some spearfishing.

"Mind if I join you guys?" I ask as Benji hands me a spear.

"Not at all." He replies as he throws his spear into the water, and pulls it out with a fish impaled by it.

"You two weren't actually fucking in there, were you?" Violet asks as she spears a fish, casually dropping it in a bucket. "That shack is fucking gross."

My face reddening, I plunge my spear into the water, missing a fish. "Uh, no we were not."

"I still don't know what it is you see in her." She snarkily says to me. "She's just so annoying and she always gets on my nerves. I just don't get it."

I scowl back at her, crossing my arms at her last remark. "Look, I don't know what the fuck happened before Benji and I got here, or what things were like before Minnie died, but you gotta stop pinning that on her. She was Minnie's friend, too, you know. I know the two of you were something, and I understand how it feels to lose someone you love, but it's not like she killed them herself. She thinks you hate her when it wasn't her fault."

"I don't hate her," she mutters. "It's just… ugh. God!" She angrily throws the spear into the stream, bagging a fish as I do the same.

"I think they've smartened up." She notes the lack of fish swimming upstream, picking up her bucket. "Let's go see if Brody had any better luck with her traps."

"Look," I tell her before we walk over. "She feels guilty as Hell about Minnie and Sophie. And maybe she hasn't apologized for it, but it's eating her alive. She wants to tell you, but she's worried you're gonna tear her to bits over it."

She hangs her head. "I just feel awful about this whole thing."

I stare at her, confused. "Why?"

"I was supposed to go out with the twins that day." She confesses. "I wanted to do lookout so I asked Brody to switch with me. But then…" she shakes her head. "I didn't even get to say goodbye."

"Jesus…" I hear Benji say under his breath from behind me, as Violet continues.

"I wanted to talk to her, tell her I don't blame her. But every time I'd try to, I'd be reminded of who we lost. It was a lot easier to just not talk about it."

The three of us walk off toward Brody, who in turn walks back to us. "Any luck with the fish?" She asks us.

We show her our haul, it's a decent amount, but not much to last. She frowns, as she shows us that all the traps were empty.

"We should catch up with Louis, Aasim, Clem and her boy to see if they had any luck." She suggests, and we start heading back.

"The Grand Canyon." Violet says, and Brody looks at her with confusion. "That's where I'd go if we went on a road trip. Just keep driving until we hit the Grand Canyon."

"Yeah. That would be good." My girlfriend warmly smiles. She looks over to me, and I give her a nod that tells her all she needs to know.

The two of them start to pull ahead of us, so I whisper to Brody. "It went as smoothly as you could've asked. She wants to talk about it."

"Thank you. Seriously, thank you." She says with a kiss on my cheek, making my cheeks pink like usual.

"Come on. Are you slowpokes coming?" Violet asks us. Brody and I look at each other and smile.

"Yeah, we're right behind you." I assure her

* * *

The team of Louis, Aasim, Clementine, and AJ meet us on our way to them, and their expressions are not optimistic.

"Hey guys. What's going on?" I ask them, and Aasim is the first to speak up.

"What's up? Someone fucked with all our traps, that's what."

"What're you talking about?" Violet asks. "We've been robbed?"

"Bingo." Louis tells us. "Someone knows we're here, and they're fucking with our stuff."

"What're you going off of?" My brother, the once-aspiring detective, asks them, as Clementine pulls out an old, hand-rolled cigarette.

"None of the kids smoke, do they?" She asks, and I shake my head.

"Ever since Mitch's tobacco supply was finished I don't think anyone has anything to smoke. Looks like someone is fucking with us."

"Fuck… Fuck… FUCK! That's fucking… Oh no, FUCK!" My girlfriend curses, and it becomes evident she's having a panic attack, she starts shaking and her breathing becomes rapid.

"Brody, what's going on?" I ask her, but she doesn't answer, she just

"We need to get her back to Ericson. Benji, help me get the fish back. Brett, you focus on getting Brody back, alright?" Aasim tells us. The two of us look at each other and nod before we start heading back.

"Try and scrounge up some more food while you can, alright? Try to get back here by dark." Aasim tells Clem, and the four that are left go out looking for more.

* * *

Hours pass by after we get back, and while her panic attacks have gone down, although I can tell she's bothered by something. She won't tell me what it is directly, with the promise that she'll tell me eventually. I want to get more out of her, but in the state she's been in, that just might not be a good idea.

As dusk comes, the four that went out haven't come back, and the others start to grow concerned, myself included. Even with Brody casually laying on the couch with me, things don't feel right, so much so that Marlon comes by, asking to talk with her in private. I get up to give the two of them privacy, just as the gates open, Louis and Clem both walking in with duffel bags.

"Took y'all long enough!" Ruby remarks from the fire, to which Louis smugly smiles.

"How poor are they that have not patience?" He asks as he and Clem both place their bags on the table. Inside them, food. So much fucking food.

"Wow…" Benji says in awe. "There's so much. I don't think we've had this much food just lying around since that buck Brett bagged."

"Where did you find all this?" I hear from behind us, Brody walking over and looking at the haul.

"The old train station. Clem knew where it was." Louis informs her.

"Old train station… That's outside the safe zone." She notes, shooting Marlon a look.

Violet sighs. "And we'd have even more, but we ran into the creep that fucked up our rabbit traps"

"Creep? What creep?" Brody asks.

"He smokes those nasty Bible cigarettes. He had weird, different-colored eyes." Clem describes the man they ran into.

Brody looks around, noticeably uncomfortable. "Did he follow you?"

Clem looks at her in confusion. "No, I let him have some food, and we lost him in a swarm of walkers.

"You just let him take our food?" Brody asks in bewilderment. "What the fuck? Now he knows we're out here, but he'll come back for more."

I put my hand on her shoulder in reassurance. "Calm down, Brody. There's other hungry people out here. If Clem let him have some food, it just means there's someone else out there that isn't hungry tonight."

"You don't know that! There are bad people out there, and we don't know if they'll come for us." She counters back, and despite my skeptical looks, Clem says something before I do.

"He would have shot us if I didn't do what I did. I made the right call."

"Bullshit! What if he wasn't alone. You don't know what people are capable of out there."

Clem scowls, crossing her arms, "Think. Again."

I get between the two, trying to defuse the situation like with Mitch and Aasim last year. "Guys, let's calm down and have some dinner. It's been a long day, but we'll figure this out."

"What the Hell's goin' on here?" we all hear Marlon's voice as he joins us, Brody immediately turning to him.

"She took them outside the safe zone. They saw someone. You know what that means!" I glance over at Marlon.

"What the Hell is she talking about?"

"Enough!" He says to the both of us. "It just means there's a hungry guy out there looking for food. It's happened before. You are overreacting."

She looks at him shocked, before chuckling. "You cannot be serious!"

"Come on. Let's go somewhere and talk about this." Marlon mutters to her, grabbing her arm, and a glare forms on her face.

Without a word, she shoves him to the ground, before turning back to Clementine. "If ANYTHING happens, I am holding YOU accountable!" she yells to her before storming off.

A stunned silence from the group follows, wondering what the fuck we just witnessed. I look around, and everyone looks back at me. Without saying anything, I nod and follow her, inside one of the old admin buildings.

"FUCK!" I hear her crying at the end of the hall, and sure enough, I see her sitting on the stairs. I feel my heart drop, and I sit down next to her, she cuddles up next to me, still crying.

"What's all this about? I get that it's dangerous outside the safe zone, but they only saw a dude trying to make it out here. I don't know how that makes him dangerous."

She sniffs. "It's not just that. It's because-" Brody's cut off by the sounds of someone coming into the building. Sure enough, Marlon comes down the corridor.

"There you guys are. Brett, can I talk to Brody for a bit? In private?" I eye him suspiciously, and then back at Brody, and finally back at him. "Seriously, go get some dinner before Louis eats everything."

Conceding, I give Brody one last look of support before walking out. This all feels wrong. Something's going on that they're not telling us, and I want to get to the bottom of it.

Dinner feels like an eternity. People talk, but not me. I can't stop thinking about Brody and Marlon. The whole thought of it leaves an awful taste in my mouth, that the leader of our group and my girlfriend are hiding something from the rest of us. I don't even feel hungry, so I just walk back to my room, sitting down on my bed.

Benji comes in minutes later, sitting down in his bed. Normally, he'd grab a book and start reading, but not this time.

"What's been going on?"

I simply shrug back to my brother. "I don't know, man. I wanna talk to Brody, but she can't seem to tell me."

"Do you think she's hiding something?"

I nod to my brother. "That has to be it. I don't know what it could be, but with the way she and Marlon have been the past few hours, I would guess there's something they aren't telling us."

He nods in agreement. "I think so, too. The way she got so aggressive toward Marlon just then was a dead giveaway. But, I have no idea what they could be hiding from us."

"I've never seen her like that before. My guess is that there's something really bad going on behind the scenes. But I'm gonna try to figure it out, one way or another."

"Good luck with that." He says as he slumps down into bed. "It's getting late, you may wanna wait till the morning."

"Yeah, maybe. I'm gonna go see if I can talk with Brody." I wish my brother goodnight, and I head down the hall to Brody's where I see the door is cracked open. I open it further, and I see her laying in bed, trying to sleep.

"Brett?" I hear her ask in the darkness.

"Hey, I didn't mean to wake you. I was just checking up on you. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, it's fine. Marlon and I talked, and I think things are better now."

"So what exactly is going on? You sounded like you were about to tell me something back there."

"Climb in bed, please." I see her outstretched arms as I hear her tell me with a yawn. "I'll explain in the morning."

For a moment, I just stand there, almost wanting to talk about it now, but knowing her, I know that trying to prod information out of her when she's stressed is a bad idea, so I oblige. I crawl into bed, feeling the warmth and trying to feel more relaxed.

"I promise that I'll tell you everything in the morning. Anything you want to know about this, I'll tell you the whole truth and nothing but it, alright?"

"We can't do this right now?"

"No, this is something we need to do face to face, not in the dark. Understand?"  
I sigh, "Sure. Tomorrow morning. I wanna know what this is."

"Of course. Hey Brett?"

"Hmm?"

"I love you."

Despite everything that's going on, I can't help but smile. "I love you, too."

To the sound of a light rainfall, the two of us fall asleep, with her in my arms. Although, how anyone could sleep with the uncertainty I'm feeling is beyond me.

* * *

The crashing of thunder and lightning wakes me up with a gasp, jerking me up from my lying position as I look around. Something's off. Brody's not here, even though it's still nighttime.

"Brody?" I whisper out, hoping she'd answer, but I get no response. From outside, I hear muffled voices, shouting about something. I look out, and in the darkness, I see a small figure, pointing a gun at a bigger one. AJ?

I throw on my jacket and boots, running out into the rain and sure enough, AJ holding Marlon at gunpoint, surrounded by the others.

"Where is she?" The boy yells to Marlon, visibly scared of the boy. "Where's Clementine?"

"She's in the basement… S-she murdered Brody!" He points in the direction of the basement.

The words pierce my heart, and I feel my guts churning. The same girl I was just sleeping with hours ago, gone. Just like that.

"What did you say?" I roar out at Marlon, my chest pounding, tears welling up in a way I hadn't felt since Dad died. "What the fuck happened?"

"Brody… she's… she's fucking gone, man. I'm sorry. I tried to do what I could, but Clem killed her." He admits, and I lose all feeling in my legs, collapsing to my knees. The murmurs of the others, just as shocked as I am, are the only sounds I can hear, other than the rainstorm that was starting to pick up. All of this until-

"That's bullshit Marlon!" Clem yells at him as she walks over, covered in blood, making my heart drop even further. Brody, she's really gone. "You killed Brody. You hit her so hard, her head split open!"

All eyes go to Marlon, who, of course, defends himself. "That's a lie! I saw YOU kill her! Look at her hands, Brett. She's covered in Brody's blood!"

I gulp. He's right. Her hands, coated in red. My girlfriend's blood.

"Jesus Christ, Clem." Aasim says, followed by Tenn, who is visibly shaken by all this.

"What did you do?"

Marlon rushes AJ, distracted by Clem, and steals his gun, proudly raising it in the air. "We saved their lives when anyone else would've kept walking! We fed them, we kept them warm, and this is how they thank us? Guns being pulled and murder? Well fuck them!" He yells out, pointing the revolver at Clem.

Despite having the gun pointed right at her, Clem remains calm, "You shoot me, and what do you offer up to your raider friends when they come knocking?"

"What the Hell is she talking about?" Aasim and I both say at the same time.

"He won't shoot me, because he needs me alive. Brody told me Marlon was gonna give me and AJ up to raiders in exchange for safety." Clem explains, "The same way he gave up Sophie and Minnie!"

Everyone freezes, myself included, and especially Tenn.

"Oh my God…" Ruby says, before Marlon's yelling cuts her off.

"Shut the fuck up, Clementine!"

I finally stand up, slowly stumbling over to the group. "No, let her talk."

"Brody told me the truth, and that's when Marlon killed her!"

"Oh come the fuck on!" Marlon roars out. "They only met up with these raiders because Clem insisted we go out there. Seems like quite the coincidence, doesn't it? It's a shame I don't believe in those."

No one says a word, so Marlon continues, "Think about how scared we all were when the adults left. I pulled us out of that fear. I gave us all courage again. So who're y'all gonna believe, huh? Johnny-come-lately and her little fucking lunatic? Or me, your friend?"

Clem glances right over to me. "Brett! You're not seriously buying this, are you? He killed her to keep her quiet and to save his own ass!"

"Don't let her trick you, Brett. Remember, Brody was my friend. I wanted nothing but the best for you guys, and she took her from you, from US!"

I feel my chest pounding as all eyes fall on me. I feel my entire body shake, not from the cold or the rain, but from the sheer tension. I feel a lump in my throat as I begin to stammer, not knowing what to say. "Fuck… Clem, I… Shit…"

"Brett, her last words to me were that she loves you, just as she was bleeding out in my arms. Are you gonna let that be for nothing? Or are you gonna step up and do the right thing? What would she want?"

"We will all feel safer once I pull this trigger." Marlon tells us all, his arms a little shaky. Shit… Maybe Clem is telling the truth.

"If you were there that day, he'd have given you away, too." She tells me, and I gulp.

Step by step, I feel my feet moving slowly toward the two of them, as though they have a mind of their own, and finally there I am, staring down the barrel of the gun, while Marlon stares at me, confused.

"What are you doing, man? She killed Brody!"

"Put the gun down, Marlon. I don't know who to believe, but we're gonna figure all this out the right way."

"Stand down, Marlon. Be reasonable." Aasim tells him, as him and the others start surrounding Marlon.

"You don't get it. You really don't understand at all, do you?" He asks us, inadvertently waving the gun around, "I'm trying to protect you! All of you! Every fuckin' one of you!"

"He's lying to you! He can't- or won't, protect you. Look what happened to the others, Brody, Sophie, Minerva. You suck at protection." Clem fires back.

"Shut your fucking mouth! I made the right call. I saved the lives of everyone in this fuckin school. If they came back, I'd do it again!"

A collective gasp comes from the rest of them. Marlon admitted it. He gave the twins away. He lied about it. He…

I feel a fire blazing inside me, and it takes all of my willpower to not beat him right here. "Wait, so you gave away Tenn's sisters away, lied to us about it for a year, and then you murdered my girlfriend, all so you could save your ass?"

He looks at me with a somber expression before nodding. "Mhmm. I didn't mean to. I didn't want any of this. I wanted to save them… Sophie. Minerva!"

I feel my fists tighten as I snap. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

I see myself swing at him, my right fist colliding with his nose and making a nasty cracking noise as he falls to the ground, AJ's gun clattering off to the side. As he's down, I starting wailing on him, my right fist throwing punches while my left holds him up.

Soon enough, I feel someone pulling me back, and even as I fight back, my body soon loses all its will to fight. "You're no leader! You're a fucking monster! You fucking coward!" I cry out as I'm finally let go. Instead of running back over to finish the job, I just sit there, unable to move. Me stands back up, his nose bloody and his face bruised.

"You're right." He says, tears running down his face. "You're absolutely right. Just let me leave. You'll never see me again. Just let me become a bad memory." He begs us. I don't even know what to think. I want this fucker to burn, that's all I know.

"You don't-"

Violet gets cut off by a single gunshot, and Marlon's body slumps to the ground.

**I'll be honest, this chapter was kinda a tough one to plan. I wasn't sure if I'd stick with the canon, or if I'd do the same thing with TFG, if you know you know. I ultimately decided to stick with the canon for reasons you'll see later. So for those of you expecting to see a long-term Brett/Brody relationship, I apologize. Anywho, that was Chapter 5. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week.**


	6. Goodbyes Hurt The Most

**Chapter 6 - Goodbyes Hurt the Most**

Most of the group stares in horror at AJ, the young boy holding the smoking gun that had just killed Marlon.

"What? I aimed for the head." He tells us, and Louis looks over at him, horrified.

"Marlon, no!"

"Oh my god!" Omar adds.

More clamoring ensues as the others panic, but Mitch stands front, pointing a single finger at AJ.

"Marlon's dead. That kid blew his fucking brains out!"

"You shot him." Louis says in disbelief. "He's dead. You're a murderer." He says to the boy, who looks hurt, before turning to Clem. "You said you'd help Marlon fix things. What the fuck did you teach this kid?"

The others start to surround AJ, trying to overwhelm him, before Violet steps in front of him, pulling out her butcher knife. "Back off! All of you!"

"Marlon surrendered, and then he fucking murdered him, Vi!"

"Take AJ and go inside." Violet instructs Clem, but this is met with some immediate resistance.

"Oh, just let them go back to the dorms? What happens the next time someone does something this kid doesn't like? Should we expect a bullet too?"

"Back off, Louis." Violet warns him, but Louis shakes his head.

"No fuckin' way. It was done, until Mr. Trigger-Happy decided to shoot him."

"Let's go, AJ." Clem says to the boy as they start to walk off, but Mitch steps in their way, knife drawn.

"He helped save you from that fucking car wreck, and you fucking murdered him?"

"Get back, Mitch." She warns him.

"Get. Back." The boys repeats, and Mitch scowls.

"Or what? You'll shoot me too?"

"Put the knife away, unless you wanna wind up like Marlon." I warn him, putting my handgun to the side of his head, getting more gasps from the others.

"Brett? What the fuck are you doing?" Ruby asks me, but I don't break my glare at Mitch.

"I'm doing the right thing. We do not do blood for blood here. We will decide what to do with them, but we are not outright killing them. We've lost enough tonight."

"How the fuck can you say that while defending AJ?" Mitch asks me, not standing down.

"Because I know that if we keep this up, we're gonna fucking kill each other, and I don't want that. Is that too difficult to understand?"

Finally, he stands down, putting the knife back in his pocket. "Screw both of you. He mutters to us before huddling over Marlon's body with the others, still mourning.

Violet leads Clem and AJ back inside, leaving those mourning, and me.

"So, what do we do with the body?" Benji asks, and the others shrug.

"We could have a funeral tomorrow. Pay our respects to him and Brody." Ruby suggests.

The group agrees, and most of them help pick up Marlon's body. I, of course, want nothing to do with it. They decide to move him to the basement, where they can keep his body until the funeral in the morning, and I watch as they open the door, and my heart shatters when I see the floor.

There she is. Brody's corpse lies on the floor with her face bashed in. It looks like Clem had to defend herself after Brody turned, and she did what she had to.

"Brody… No…" My knees collapse next to her body. "Fuck… Brody!"

"Oh my God…" Aasim says as he sets down Marlon's body. "Brett, I am so sorry."

"She's… she's fucking gone. I didn't even get to say goodbye. Marlon he… FUCK!"

As much as I want to look away, I just can't. Something forces me to just look at the girl I used to love, what's left of her at least. Her skull bashed in well past recognition. The bits and chunks of skull and brain matter smashed all around her, and my guts squirm.

I keel over and turn away as stomach acid forces its way up my guts, and I puke in the corner, the sick feeling from my stomach not going away as tears stream down my cheeks.

I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I wipe off my face and turn to see Louis offering sympathy. "Hey man, you alright?"

"Do I look alright, motherfucker?" I snap back at him. "My girlfriend is dead, her fucking skull got bashed in. If that doesn't answer your question, no, I'm pretty fucking far from alright."

He backs off, and I take that as a chance to get the fuck out of there. Before I can leave, though, I take one more look at Brody's body.

"I was such a bitch to her for so long." Violet mutters from next to me. "I… I should've been nicer to her, especially knowing the twins didn't die. I just wish she could've known that. I didn't even get to apologize. Fuck… I'm sorry, Brody."

"It doesn't feel real." I say to her. "We were laying in bed a few hours ago, just talking. I told her I loved her as I fell asleep. I had no idea that was the last thing I'd say to her. And yet, here we are, looking at the work that asshole. Marlon, caused."

"Do you blame the kid for shooting him?" She asks me, and I take a second to ponder that. On one hand, he's five. The sheer fact he even knows how to use a gun is kinda wild, and seeing him willingly use it on who he perceived as a threat is a scary sight. At the same time though, if I didn't get pulled back, who's to say I wouldn't have beaten him until he was a bloody pulp, just like my girlfriend is now.

"I have no idea. This is all just too much. How're he and Clem handling it?"

"They're… remorseful. I think AJ understands he went too far, but he's so young, shit... "

"I mean, I can't really blame him. I might've killed him myself if I didn't get dragged back." I tell her, and she nods back to me.

"It would at least make sense. He killed the girl you love, you'd have a reason to. AJ, he just… took initiative."

"Killing someone at such a young age, that can't be good for his brain, can it? Like, if he becomes so desensitized, will he go on a rampage or something, especially if Clem can't keep him stable?"

"It's a definite possibility. We'll have to try and avoid that, by any means." She agrees. "You should probably get some rest. You need it, especially after all this."

I nod, one last tear rolling down my cheek. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right." With my last look at Brody, I give her a teary smile, but I can't say anything. I want to say something sweet, but I can't bring myself to say anything, so I just walk out.

The rain has turned into a light sprinkling, and I see Rosie, still tied up on the pole, sniffing at the pool of blood Marlon left. I give her a couple ear scratches before heading back in. Each step I take down the hallway echoes down and back, and the quiet of everything else sends a shivering chill down my spine. Just being alone with my thoughts, especially now, I don't want that. I need to sleep.

I turn to knob to enter the room, and I see Benji, still awake and sitting on his bed. The two of us look up at each other, and without saying a word, he gets up, walking over to me, and hugging me.

I want to cry, but nothing comes out. I just want to collapse. I can't speak. I can barely even walk. I'm a fucking wreck. He helps me over to my bed, where I settle down into it, closing my eyes without a word, silently praying for sleep, death, anything to end this day.

* * *

Of course, death doesn't come. And I can't sleep. Who could? When you see your girlfriend's head bashed in, it tends to be pretty difficult to relax, much less to fall asleep. When the image of her whole skull and face bashed in is imprinted into your memory, it's hard to see anything else when you close your eyes, so I just lay there, my mind broken and not feeling any sort of sensation in my body. Eventually, I see sunlight pouring in through the window, and I decide to roll out of bed. I'm not sleeping, that's been established, so I walk out into the courtyard, still damp from last night's rain, and I grab a shovel, heading over to the graveyard, where I see Willy, of all people, hard at work on crosses, likely for the graves.

"Brett? What're you doing up?" The boy asks me. "The funeral isn't going to be for an hour or so."

"I didn't sleep at all." I tell him as I start digging. "How was I supposed to? Did anyone really sleep? Brody's dead. Marlon's dead. Is anyone able to sleep after what happened?"

"Am I supposed to answer that?" He asks me, and I simply shrug. I'm not even sure at this point.

The wet dirt makes it pretty easy to dig, thankfully, and this gives me something to focus on instead of Brody, even though this is FOR Brody. Marlon keeps crossing my mind. That two-faced son of a bitch. Just days before he let us in, from his own generosity, he let two of his people get kidnapped by these raiders, all so he could feel safe. And when Brody wanted to tell us what he did, he killed her for it. That scumbag.

I don't blame AJ for what he did. I wasn't sure last night. Now, I have no doubt in my mind. I'll defend him and Clem till the end about that. Maybe I have bias here, but that shouldn't matter. Marlon had it coming the moment he let Sophie and Minnie be taken. Killing Brody tipped it over the edge for me. I would've done the exact same thing AJ did.

Others start showing up, ready to pay their respects, as I finish the final grave. I get some looks of sympathy from some of them, Mitch sends a nasty glare my way instead, which I gladly return. I guess he hasn't forgotten about last night.

As it gets closer to starting time, Mitch, Louis, Violet, and Aasim go down to the basement, and minutes later, the come back up, Marlon's and Brody's bodies in hand. Each body is placed in a grave, and we start covering them with dirt, and as the dirt rises on my girlfriend's body, the sight of her fades away with each pile of dirt I begrudgingly drop on her, until she entirely covered, and the patch of dirt is all that remains.

"We should probably get Clem and AJ," Violet tells us, and a few of us agree. "Tenn, can you get them?" she softly asks the boy, who nods and runs off.

Minutes later, they arrive, as others start placing flowers, and saying nice words to the dead. Rosie, possibly missing Marlon the most, lays at his cross, whimpering but not doing much else.

"Oh God, they're here." Aasim mutters, getting a glance from Violet.

"So what? They knew Brody, didn't they?"

"Yeah, but Marlon-" Omar responds, before Violet cuts him off.

"Just leave them alone."

Louis sighs, and I hear him mutter something under his breath, but it doesn't seem like anyone hears what he says.

With that, Violet starts the service itself. Her words get drowned out by my thoughts, though. It's impossible to focus on that, when your girlfriend is buried a few feet in front of you. Benji walks over next to me, putting his hand on my shoulder in support, getting a painful smile out of me.

Tenn walks over to Brody's grave, placing a picture he drew at her cross. "Brody," He says, "You always said you wanted to go to the beach, so, I drew it for you."

Violet gives him a soft smile before looking over at me. "Brett? Do you wanna say anything?"

My chest knots up, but I nod. I walk up to Brody's grave, kneeling by her final resting place.

With a deep breath, I speak from the heart. "Brody, I already miss you, like nothing else. You were the best part of my day, and I can't tell you how much you mean to me. I just… I just wish I got to say goodbye. But I'll see you again, I know that for sure. So rest easy, I'll see you when I see you." I feel myself choke up as I stand, a single teardrop rolling down my cheek and landing on the grave. "I love you…"

I walk back into the crowd, as Violet looks over at Marlon's grave. "Marlon was…" she pauses, shaking her head. "I can't. Not for Marlon. Not after what he did to the twins and Brody."

"You didn't even like Brody!" Willy snaps at her. "You were always mean to her."

Violet frowns. "I can't do it. Someone else do it." She walks back into the crowd.

I hear Mitch mutter "Bitch" under his breath, and I want to knock his lights out in front of everyone, but I resist the urge to, out of respect for Brody.

"Dude, don't." Louis tells him.

"Seriously, Louis? He was your best friend. He wasn't perfect, but he deserved better than to be gunned down by that kid." He says, turning to AJ and pointing over at him. "AJ killed him like it was nothing.

"You're right, Mitch. Marlon didn't deserve what AJ did to him." Clem agrees, surprisingly. I would've agreed with AJ, not that that's really a surprise anymore.

"I know what I did, I'm sorry." The boy admits. "I know I'm a murderer, but I gonna atone."

"Fuck, I can't listen to this." Louis says as he walks back inside, completely ignoring AJ, Clem, and everyone else.

Aj continues, "What I did was bad, and I'm gonna make it up to you. I promise."

"You don't have to make up shit!" Violet protests from the back. I look at her and nod in agreement. "Marlon was a fucking murderer, and a liar, and if we'd asked more questions about Minnie and Sophie disappearing last year, none of this would've happened."

"She's got a point…" Aasim quietly agrees.

"Shut up! It wasn't Marlon's fault." Willy argues, which sets me off like a lit fuse.

"Not his fault? Marlon was a grade-A scumbag!" I fire back. "That asshole had it coming to him. I would've done it myself if AJ didn't. And you can put that on the record."

Some gasps come from the crowd, and I feel myself start to simmer down and breathe, starting to think a little more rationally, but I just shut up. I've made my point.

"Look," Clem tells us calmly, "Whatever happened before, AJ shouldn't have killed Marlon. He's just a kid, and he did what he thought was the right thing."

"The right thing?" Mitch roars back. "How can any of us trust you if he thought murdering Marlon was the right thing?"

"What are you saying, Mitch?" Violet asks him, to which he fires back immediately.

"I'm saying they've gotta go. We take a vote, majority decides if they stay or leave."

"Please don't do this." She pleads to him, "I know-"

"You don't know shit. If you did, you would've stopped him." Mitch accuses her, which strikes a chord with me, but also Aasim.

"Like you stopped him from attacking Brody? You're a fucking hypocrite, you know that?"

"A vote's the only way to settle this, or else we'll be arguing forever." Omar tells us, and it seems like just about everyone agrees, for the most part.

"Fine." Violet hesitantly agrees. "I guess we're fucking voting. Tenn, can you get Louis? He needs to vote."

Once again, the boy nods and runs to get him, not saying anything, as Violet turns to Clem and AJ.

"Could you guys go wait in the dorm? I'll go get you when it's all done."

The two of them turn to walk away, and judging by the looks I'm seeing, this isn't going to be pretty.

* * *

"I know what AJ did was wrong, but the kid is five!" My brother argues, "Shit, he thought he was doing the right thing. Kicking them out for killing Marlon who, while he didn't deserve to die, was still a bad guy, is a bit extreme, don't you think?"

"They can't just come in here, kill our leader, and expect to get off scot-free." Louis reminds him. "I hate to say it, but I think we need to kick them out. Besides, they've got that community, Richmond. I'm sure they can make it a few days out there. So, she's back with her people, we're fine over here, everyone wins."

"Who's to say she's not with those raiders that took the twins?" Mitch asks. "Maybe they're here to scout us out and report back."

"That's fucking stupid, Mitch." My brother scolds him. "Clem's not like that. She'd stage a car crash in hopes that we come across them? That seems far too convenient."

"Alright, anyone else wanna make their case?" Violet asks us, and everyone looks around. I haven't said a word in here. My position's already known on this matter. When no one else says a word, she motions to Tenn to hand us all pencils and pieces of paper. Without any thought to it, I wrote my answer.

STAY. Written in all caps, with a single line underlining it. I fold my ballot and place it in the bucket in front of Violet, before sitting back down. Everyone else does the same with theirs, with Ruby being the last one. With that, Violet starts reading the ballots.

"One vote leave." She says, pulling out another. "One vote leave, one vote stay.

Two votes stay, one vote leave.

Two votes stay, two votes leave.

Three votes leave, two votes stay.

Four votes leave, two votes stay.

Four votes leave, three votes stay.

Four votes leave, four votes stay.

Five votes stay, four votes leave."

I look around the room. There's ten of us. Nine votes. This is good, at least. We've got half, now it just depends on how this last vote goes.

Violet reaches in, pulling out the final ballot, and a grimace forms on her face, and my stomach drops a bit.

"It's a tie."

Groans erupt throughout the room. A vote, despite Omar's insistence, did not settle this.

"So what now?" Aasim asks. "This didn't solve anything."

"Anyone got a coin?" My brother suggests. "I hate the idea, but I can't think of anything else. I'm guessing our stances on this are set one way or another, so we're gonna have to leave it to chance."

"Yeah, I got one." Omar responds, digging through a pocket until he hands Benji a quarter.

"Heads they stay, Tails they leave." my brother announces, before flipping the quarter in the air.

As we all look on in suspense, the coin, as though it were in slow motion, finally hits the floor, bouncing around a bit, before it rests on the floor, we all rush to see where it landed.

Tails. It's fucking tails. I feel my stomach sink at the thought of what this means. Clem… AJ…

"So that's it then." Mitch proudly announces. "They're gone."

"Fuck…" I hear Violet whisper. "FUCK!"

We all turn to hear the pitter-patter of footsteps running away, and I barely catch a glimpse of Tenn running out of the room. Poor kid. He and AJ were getting along so well. And now, that all goes to moot, because of a mistake, if I can even call it that.

Violet and Louis go to break the news, and I feel sick to my stomach again. I storm back to my room, climbing back into bed, where I just lay there, unable to sleep. How could I? The past day has gotten shittier and shittier, and there's nothing I can do about it.

I feel miserable. Clem and AJ seemed like good people. AJ definitely has his heart in the right place. He did what he thought what he was right. He killed a monster, and he didn't know any better.

With a sigh, I stare blankly upwards. Was this the worst day of my life? Shit, it's up there.


	7. Silence

**Chapter 7 - Silence**

_**Benji's POV**_

**The Next Day**

This place has been dead over the last day. Barely anyone has said a word since we had to kick out Clem and AJ, and rightfully so. I hope those that voted to kick them out feel some sort of remorse, because those that voted stay are feeling absolutely awful. Myself included. I just hope they made it back to Richmond safe and sound. Maybe they're still on the road. In that case, I hope they make it back.

I feel awful for a few people in particular. Violet clearly voted to stay, and she was absolutely distraught at having to kick out Clem. The two of them seemed to be very close, so having to kick them out like that, it's pretty fucked up.

Tenn needed a friend that he could talk to and play with, and although AJ's a lot younger, the two of them were also very close, much like Clem and Violet. AJ might've been Tenn's first real friend here, and I feel absolutely awful for him. The poor kid had no one to really talk to, except AJ for maybe two days. And now it's back to nothing.

Despite all this, the one I'm really scared about is my own brother. Brett stormed off after the vote, and I found him lying in bed, unresponsive to anything I tried to do. I know he's mourning Brody, but he's not doing anything at all. He just lies there, blankly staring up. He doesn't talk, he doesn't move, he just stays there. It's like I don't even exist when I try to get him to talk to me. He's been in his own little world the last day, and I don't know what will break him out of it. Although I hope something does soon. We need leadership here, and while Violet took over, Brett's leadership is still something we need around here.

After Violet and Louis came back, they told us something very chilling. They came across the people that kidnapped the twins. The raiders. This man, I assume the guy that stole some of our food he other night, and this woman, who the two of them noted seemed to be familiar with Clem already. Although, they did not seem to be on good terms, as both Clem and AJ were roughed up before the two of them ran away. So while it's unknown if Clem and AJ are even still alive, we might have a bigger problem on our hands if what Violet and Louis told us is true.

Today, I'm on lookout duty, and while it's been a quiet day, aside from the occasional walker that'll pass through. This quiet is a chilling one. It's too quiet. No conversation, nothing. Just the breeze and my thoughts. It doesn't feel right. I've had the feeling I'm being watched, but I really can't see anything out there. But if these asshole raiders are really coming out to get us, it makes me wonder how long they've been scouting us out. They could've been scouting it out longer than Brett and I have been here; the sheer thought that we've probably been watched by another group all this time is creepy as Hell.

I see something move by the treeline, and I raise my bow. Is it a raider? Shit. Is it?

No, it's not. Two figures emerge. A walker, but he's moving like a human naturally would? And, what the? Clem?

Yep. Clementine. Holding AJ, a visible blood stain seeping through his shirt. I immediately rush down from the post, over to the gate, just in time to see the walker walking away, still just like a normal person. But more importantly, I see Clem collapse to the ground, AJ still in her arms.

"Clem!" I cry out to her as I force the gates open, rushing over to her. 'Shit, is he-"

"He's alive." She assures me. "He was shot. He's running a fever. We need to get him inside." She weakly tells me.

"Here," I grab AJ in my arms, blood slowly seeping through the shirt and onto my jacket, but nonetheless I carry him in, Clem keeping up, even though I can tell she's completely exhausted. The three of us make our way into the Admin building, much to the surprise of the others, and we rush upstairs.

"Ruby," I turn to her, "He's been shot. Can you help him out?"

"Let me see." She tells me, taking the boy into her arms, inspecting the wound, before handing him back to me and nodding upstairs. "Come on. I have what I need upstairs."

She motions for me to set him down on a couch, which I do. She puts a hand to his forehead, frowning and shaking her head. Poor little guy, his body's running a fever, trying to fight the infection."

"Ruby and Louis will take care of him. But you and me need to talk, in the office." Violet leads Clem inside, but she turns back to me before closing the doors. "Benji?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you get Brett? We haven't seen him since the vote, and if what happened yesterday is any indication of what's to come, we're gonna need him."

I nod to her, taking one last look at the boy, slowly writhing in pain from the wound as Louis and Ruby tend to him.

I slowly jog down the stairs, out the door and towards the dorms, entering the building and making my way to the room Brett and I share. I hesitate a moment, thinking about the condition he's in. He hasn't spoken a word, hasn't eaten, hasn't moved in a day.

Regardless, I slowly open the door. Sure enough, there he is. His eyes stay wide open, bags forming, his light breathing the only sounds he's making, and the only indicator he's even alive. His eyes stay fixated on the ceiling, just as he has the last day.

I kneel down by his bed, and I lightly nudge his shoulder. "Brett. Brett."

He doesn't respond, still staring upwards in a trancelike state. I nudge him harder, trying to snap him out of it. He still doesn't respond, like I'm not even there. With a reluctant hesitation, I wind up, and swing an open hand towards him.

* * *

_**Brett's POV**_

My mind snaps back to reality as I feel a stinging pain on my cheek. Stunned, I lay there for a second before looking at my brother, who just slapped me.

"Benji?" I hoarsely ask him as he hands me his water bottle. "Jesus…"

"You need to get up. Clem's back and she needs your help." He explains to me, and I feel my face brighten a bit. Clem and AJ are back. Thank God. But why?

"What's going on?" I ask him as I sit up, rubbing my face.

"Clem and Violet will explain. We need to get to the office right now. Come on."

Minutes later, I'm walking up the stairs that lead to the office, and as I reach the top, I'm immediately met with the sight of Ruby and Louis operating on AJ.

"What the fuck happened?" I ask them, but Ruby shoos me away to focus on her work, and I barely catch a glimpse of AJ, barely conscious, and bloody on his side.

I step into the office to see Violet and Clem leaning over a map of the property, and the two of them both look up with a smile to see me.

"It's good to see you." Clem remarks, and I return the smile.

"I could say the same to you. I figured you'd be halfway to Richmond at this point."

"We were on our way. But we got… sidetracked."

"That's certainly one way of putting things. So, what's going on?"

Violet slides the map towards me. "Clem ran into some of the raiders Marlon was doing business with in the woods. It turns out they're fighting a war and they need soldiers, and they do that by kidnapping people, and forcing them to fight."

"And they're coming back for more?" I ask in a follow up. Violet nods in response.

"Bingo."

"What else do we know?" I ask the two of them.

"I have history with one of them." Clem explains to me, which garners a curious look from me, before she continues. "A woman named Lilly. She was a member of my first group, back when I met Ian and Lee, and others. She and her dad were some awful people, and she became vicious after her father died. She shot Ian's wife, this woman Carley, during a dispute, so we ditched her on the side of the road, never to be seen again. Or so we thought. There's not too much else I know about her, other than that she was in the military and she's ruthless."

"So these raiders are coming? We should do what we can to defend this place. It's a bloody fortress, so whatever we can do to make it stronger, I say go for it."

"Clem and I were just discussing that." Violet informs me, pointing to various areas on the map. "We've gotta fortify the walls, set up some cover in the courtyard, and we can even rig some traps around the area, just to catch them off-guard."

"I'm going to the greenhouse to grab some barbed wire, for fortifying the walls." Clem adds, and Violet nods in confirmation.

"Sounds like a plan." I agree. "We can't be too careful with this. These assholes are more experienced, ruthless, and they've probably got numbers on us, too. But, they're coming to us, so we've got that going for us. It won't be pretty, but we can do this as long as we stay cool and we don't lose our heads.

As though right on cue, the doors slam wide open and Mitch barges in, angrily. "Okay, what the Hell's going on?". Almost immediately, he takes notice of Clementine, to which his anger doubles. "Willy told me she was back, but I was like, no way, Violet wouldn't just go against what we all decided."

"Would you keep it down?" Ruby shushes him as she gently closes the doors. "The little boy is recovering and is asleep."

"Oh, great, we're just giving them our medicine, too?" Mitch sarcastically remarks, to which I get in his face.

'Look, motherfucker, those raiders that shot him, the ones that took Minnie and Sophie, they're getting ready to come and take more of us. We are on a fucking timer, and we need all the help we can get to make sure we don't lose anyone. Including Clementine's."

"Like Hell we do." He scoffs in my face. "For all we know, she's one of them."

"She's not." Violet fires back. "If you saw their leader's boot on her neck, you'd know that."

"All I know is that ever since she showed up, it's been trouble." He shoots back to her.

"Use your head, Mitch. You saw AJ on the way in. If I was with the raiders, why would

they have hurt him like that?" Clem asks him.

"I don't know, maybe he shot one of their friends." He remarks, referencing Marlon's death in a way that makes me want to kick his ass again.

"Clem's going to the greenhouse to get barbed wire and anything else she thinks we could use to defend the place, and you're going to help her."

He scoffs. "Uh, no. I'm not."

I grab him by the collar, glaring right into his eyes. "Listen here, you dumb son of a bitch. Those raiders will be here any day now, ready to take us or kill us. Now, I don't know about you, but I like living here, freely, not kidnapped. Now, Violet didn't ask you, pretty please with a fucking cherry on top. She's telling you how it is. You're going with her, to find anything we can use to make sure we live another day, Anything she says, you do. Am I clear?"

He glares back at me, but he firmly nods. "Crystal."

"I'll go along, too." Ruby volunteers, "To keep the peace."

"Since when were you guys the ones making the calls, anyways?" Mitch snarls at us, and Violet and I both glare back at him.

"Because no one else stepped the fuck up." She tells him, before turning to Clem. "They'll meet you by the gate once I've told them the situation."

With that, Clem leaves, just leaving the four of us. As Violet briefs them on the situation, I lean out the open window, overlooking the courtyard. So, preparing for an attack. From some ex-military people in a zombie apocalypse. At 19, I should be a college student, worrying about exams and shit, not this. But something, somehow, I feel surprisingly confident. Maybe it's legitimate confidence, maybe I'm just arrogant. This all depends on how much them coming to us is. If we can defend our place, then we'll do just fine. But, that's all depending on how well we can defend it. But, I'll fight till the last breath for this place, cause I'll be damned if I fight for these raiders.

"Brett?" I hear Violet ask, and I turn to see we're alone. "How're you feeling?"

"Fuck, Vi, I have no idea. I've spent the last day mourning Brody, but now all this with the raiders and I'm feeling all fired up. Like, I wanna fight them, for her, and for everyone we lost."

"Yeah, I understand. Do you think we have a chance?"

"God, I have no idea. I don't really know much anything about them, but all I do know is we have our work cut out for us. It's gonna get bloody, I just hope we can make it out."

May God help us all.

**Short little chapter to segway into the climax of Episode 2. Tried something new with switching POVs, so I think I might jump around with that a bit as I see fit from now on, we'll have to see. Truth be told, I haven't felt very inclined to write lately, mostly because of school, sports, and I was just on vacation too, hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things soon. Anyways, Happy Friday and I hope you guys enjoyed. See you next week.**


	8. Showtime

**Chapter 8 - Showtime**

**2 Weeks Later**

Two weeks. Two weeks of preparation. Tensions are high, but even with these high tensions, we're working together to make this place as defendable as possible. We've got barbed wire along the top of the wall, Mitch has been working on making explosives with some propane and fertilizer, which the thought of absolutely terrifies me, but whatever helps us beat the raiders, I can accept. Mitch also taught Benji a new trick- molotov cocktails. A little bit of propane, an old rag, a glass bottle, and a flame can do quite a bit of damage apparently, and Mitch was more than happy to teach my brother, as well as supplying the bottles and a generous amount of propane, to build these devices. While Benji's never been one for this sort of thing, I can't say I'm too upset that he's thinking of creative and effective ways to defend our home. I've been working on a little sniper perch, overlooking the courtyard. In reality, it's a spot on a low-hanging roof that I can lean on, with a couple of pieces of wood hammered into the roof so I can set my feet. While the perch is pretty crude, it has a perfect view of the gates, so if anyone gets in here that isn't supposed to, I'll have a good view of it all.

The tension here is thick. But then again, we're waiting on an attack where there's a legitimate chance that we don't make it out alive, or that we're gonna be slaves to these raiders. At that point, I'd almost rather die than fight for them, but I don't exactly want to do that, either. If there's one thing I can really credit the kids with, it's that we're at least congealing pretty well, but I guess the risk of dying to a bunch of murderous raiders can do that to a group.

Despite this, however, the stress is getting to some of us more than others. Especially those that haven't spent a lot of time on the road, so really everyone but me, Benji, Clem, and AJ. The most recent of the kids to have outbursts is Aasim and Willy, the two of them erupting in an argument over a trap they want to set.

"You need to start thinking straight!" Aasim yells at the boy, who immediately glares back at him.

"Hey! Hey! Break it up!" Violet says to the both of them as the others walk over to see the commotion. "What the Hell's going on between you two?"

"You told us to work on setting a trap in the Admin Building. But Aasim won't listen to any of my ideas!" The boy whines, to which Aasim scoffs.

"Because your ideas suck. I have an idea for a duffel bag full of bricks, we drop them on the raiders if they get to the Admin Building. Willy wants to use a giant, idiotic, swinging log to take out one raider at most. It's completely stupid."

"You're stupid!" Willy says back to him.

"You're being childish."

"I am not. I'm trying to help."

"So help, then. And stop arguing."

"Actually, Aasim, the swinging log sounds like to could do some serious damage." Clem chimes in, and Willy beams in agreement.

"Sure," He agrees, "Damage to like one person, and that's IF it hits anybody." He turns to Willy, "I don't know why I'm surprised, though. You know, I can't remember the last time Willy did anything useful for this school. You can barely handle guard duty."

Willy balls up his fist, throwing a mean right hook to Aasim's abdomen, to which Aasim collapses to the ground entirely. Willy, realizing what he's done, backs away and runs inside.

"Dude, you okay?" Louis asks Aasim, still trying to catch his breath,

"Yeah. Fine. Shit…" He groans.

"We're all gonna kill each other before the raiders get the chance." My brother remarks as Aasim hobbles over to a couch, collapsing on one as he drops onto it.

Louis smiles as he pulls out a deck of cards. "What we need is something to break the tension." He tells us as he leads us to the couch. "Hey buddy, how's it hangin?"

"Dude, fuck off." Aasim dryly replies, still clutching his abdomen.

"Aww, come on Aasim. Sulking in the corner isn't gonna help against the raiders, nor will it help turn that frown upside down." Louis lightly teases the boy, who's clearly irritated. "A game of cards will help lighten the mood."

"We haven't played cards in forever, not since that night with Marlon." Violet reminds us, getting a frown out of me.

"My last night with Brody where I saw her the next morning." I grumble, and a few of the others look over at me.

"If you wanna ask Ruby to come play, I don't mind waiting." Louis coyly tells Aasim, and they boy's cheeks redden, even despite his tan skin.

"Shut up dude!" He responds ashis cheeks redden even further.

"Awww, you've got a crush on Ruby?" Violet asks him, and he nods quietly, barely noticeable, as AJ and Tenn join us.

"What're we playing?" the youngest of the group asks as Louis shuffles the deck of cards.

"Truth or Dare! Highest card asks, the lowest card does. Pretty simple. Like war, but with an extra step to it."

We pass the deck around for the first round, and Violet wins, Clementine loses.

"This should be good… Marry, Fuck, Kill."

"Vi." Tenn interrupts her, and she rolls her eyes.

"Fine. Marry, Flip, KIll. Ruby, Aasim, or James, that guy who saved you."

Clem's face turns a bright red, clearly because she has a boyfriend and is being asked this question, but she still answers it rather easily.

"I'll marry… James."

"He sounds mysterious… Didn't you say he wore skin? Like walker skin?" Violet asks, to which Clem nods. "Whatever makes you happy, I guess."

"I would, um, flip…"

"Flip, Flip, Flip, Flip…" Louis starts chanting, and AJ joins in,

"Ruby." Clem answers confidently, and Louis erupts in laughter

'Wha- Sorry! I was just imagining her glare while Clem propositions her. 'What? You sure that's a good idea? What's wrong with you?'" He adds a heavy southern twang to that last bit, mocking Ruby.

The group starts to laugh along with him, mostly cause of the Ruby impression.

"Right, so that means you're killing… Aasim!" Louis announces.

"Oh, thank God." He mutters in response.

"What? You'd rather die than marry or flip Clem?"

Aasim begins to stammer as he backtracks. "N-No, I didn't mean it like that."

Clem softly giggles at this, seeing Aasim's embarrassment show once again.

"This is great, we're all laughing, we're all bonding. It's almost as though we're not just using this as a way to forget about the possibility that homicidal assholes are gonna sneak into our home to kidnap us." Louis remarks, the second half of that completely sarcastically, of course.

I smile, "Yeah, that would really be some shit, wouldn't it?" He simply chuckles in response as the deck of cards goes around again. Clem wins this round, and Aasim loses. Poor guy can't catch a break.

"Alright, definitely a dare."

He sighs. "Ok, do your worst."

"You have to ask Ruby for a kiss."

Jaws drop. She really asked him that.

Reluctantly, he stands up, and cooly walks over, well out of range for us to hear. We watch in suspense as he walks up to Ruby. It's dead silent, all until Ruby slaps him, and laughter erupts once again. He slouches back over, dejected, as the rest of us laugh. Louis laughs the longest, going well past Aasim coming back.

"Well, I think we all learned something about our good friend Aasim today. Mainly that he has no romantic charm whatsoever." He quips as Aasim hangs his head in embarrassment. Shit, I kinda feel bad for the dude.

The deck goes around for a third time, and this time Louis wins, and Benji loses. With a devilish grin, Louis asks away.

"We've been pretty hard on poor Aasim here, teasing him about sweet Ruby. It seems only fair we tease someone else about unrequited love. So, Benji, anyone here you like-like?"

My brother's face goes straight red, and I see him gulp, before quietly nodding. I look over at Clem, and she gives me an inquisitive look, but I quickly look away and don't say a word.

"Well? Who's the lucky lady? Or dude? I don't judge." Louis prods further.

"Louis, don't. He answered your question." Violet scolds him, and he shrugs. My brother remains silent, making sure everyone gets the hint that he doesn't want to be put on the spot like that.

With that, the deck is passed around once again, and this time, Aasim wins, Tenn loses. Instead of going for something tough, he asks the boy a simple question. "What's something you've never told anyone,because you were afraid they'd make fun of you?"

Tenn hesitates, but finally musters up the courage to say it. "I… um… I think… I think walkers won't always be around. They'll go away,someday. Because… the world goes in cycles, right? Ice Age, Stone Age, um… some other ages. So, it's like that. This age'll end, and another one will start."

I glance around, and no one dare mocks the boy. In fact, everyone seems impressed and intrigued.

"An age without walkers." Clem says. "Like it used to be. That's a beautiful idea, Tenn. I never thought of it that way." Tenn beams, but AJ frowns.

"What's wrong, AJ?" I ask the boy.

"I don't know what it's like, a world without monsters. All of you do, but I don't."

"You know what, little dude? It's okay that you don't. Believe me, the world before this one was pretty shitty." Louis remarks, getting a giggle out of AJ.

"I don't know, man. Think of all the things we had back then that we can't have now. Ice cream, TV, baseball, not having to worry about walkers. I'd give anything to go back to those days, if I'm being honest." I say back to him, but he jokingly scowls.

"Yeah, but you'd never meet us if the world was still normal." He remarks, and I shrug. I can't argue that one.

"You got me there." I concede, and he smiles.

"Well, that feels like a good place to call the game." He announces as the others start to get up.

"We should probably finish up our work anyways, it's getting dark." Violet adds, and I agree.

"Yeah, I've got lookout anyways. I should probably get set up."

"Can I come?" AJ asks, and I can't help but grin.

"Sure thing, buddy. The more the merrier."

He and I both grab a lawn chair, setting them up on on the lookout perch and watching over the woods.

He pulls out a pair of binoculars and starts scanning the area. "Nothing."

"So far, so good." I softly smile. "We don't want to see anybody. Well, I shouldn't say that. We don't want anybody to be out there. If someone's out there, we want to see them."

"I hope they come. I wanna beat 'em so badly, they never attack anyone again." He tells me, and I warmly smile. The kid has fire. I like that.

"It won't be easy, but we've been preparing for two weeks. I think our chances are as good as they're gonna be."

"Good. I wanna get Abel."

I look at him curiously. "Abel?"

"He's one of the raiders. The guy that screwed up our traps." He explains to me. "I think he shot me, too."

I nod. "I see. You're one super tough kid, you know that?" You got shot in the belly, and yet here you are, all better and everything."

He beams at my compliment. "Clem taught me to be tough. Ian, too. But mostly Clem."

"It shows. Brody shot me with an arrow my first day here, and that was painful as Hell, but getting shot in the belly with a gun, that takes a lot of guts to come back from so quickly, no pun intended."

He looks at me, confused. "But I thought Brody was your girlfriend. Why'd she shoot you?"

I smile, reminiscing that amazing day. "She was. This was before we were part of this group. She was scared of me and Benji, and she accidently shot me, cause she didn't know who we were. I didn't hold it against her, mostly cause it hit me in the leg. Next thing I knew, we were in love. Life just works that way, I guess."

He doesn't look much less confused than before, but he nods. "Do you blame me for shooting Marlon?"

I look at the boy, stunned, but I shake my head. "No, I don't. You're a good kid, AJ. You made a mistake, if I can even call it that, and they overreacted. I probably would've shot him if you hadn't."

"Because of Brody?"

"Exactly. You're five, buddy. You tried to do the right thing, and it went too far, but you didn't know. But now you do, so just think next time."

He nods. "Next time, I'll think it through."

This gets a warm grin out of me. "Perfect."

* * *

Hours later, the two of us are still on lookout, only now a few walkers scatter the area, but still quiet. I hear someone climbing the ladder, and the both of us turn around to see Clem joining the two of us. She's got lookout duty after me.

"Hey guys, having fun?"

AJ grins. "Yep."

"Yeah," I add, "AJ was just telling me a bit about Richmond. Sounds like you guys have a pretty solid system there."

"Ian does a pretty good job. It's not perfect, but it was a whole lot better than the last regime. We did that city a huge favor."

"That reminds me, why'd you stay?" I ask her. "Not that I'm against you staying and helping us, you know, not get murdered or kidnapped by these raiders. But, you've got a life back in Richmond. You don't think that your boyfriend is scared shitless right now cause he hasn't seen you in, what, almost three weeks?"

She softly smiles. "Gabe's kinda a dork. I miss him, but this is more important. I've seen firsthand how vicious Lilly is, and you guys wouldn't stand a chance. No offense, but that's how it is." She tells me bluntly.

"But why even help us? We kicked you out. You had every right to leave us for dead and let us get completely annihilated by Lilly and her people once AJ was feeling better."

"I couldn't do that to you guys in good conscience. Because even if the group fucked me over, Violet said half of you guys wanted to keep me around, including you and your brother."

I nod. "That's right. Me, Benji, Violet, Tenn, and Aasim." I don't know if I should've told her who voted for her, but whatever. Too late for that, now.

"Exactly. You guys aren't bad people, and I can't just leave you guys like that. I don't hold it against you guys. That vote doesn't matter anymore. We're gonna beat Lilly, and then we'll decide what to do from there."

"That guy, Abel. He's gonna be with them?" AJ asks her.

"That's right, kiddo." She confirms. "I think Abel's gonna be with them."

"I fucking really hate that fucking dickhead shitfuck." He remarks as he looks through his binoculars.

I can't help but do a glance over at the boy as the giggles start erupting from me. To hear a five year old swear that many times in one sentence, I can't help it.

"That's a little much, don't you think AJ?" Clem asks the boy, who just shrugs.

"Well I do."

I tap the boy's shoulder. "Hey, AJ. A word of advice, don't swear so much at once. The words start to lose effect that way, and you don't sound as grown-up if you swear a lot."

He nods with a smile, still looking out at the small crowd of walkers roaming through the woods.

"When he comes here, I call dibs on killing him."

I feel myself choke on nothing as I start coughing. Clem and I both turn to the boy, concerned.

"AJ, I don't like the way you're talking. Killing another person is never easy, or fun, or to be treated so casually." She scolds the boy, who frowns.

"Is it because I'm trying to be good because of Marlon?" The boy asks back to her.

"It's just because you should never think about killing like that." She replies.

A minute or so passes by of silence, and I hear AJ quietly count the walkers in his binoculars before he asks Clem another question. "What if we played rock, paper, scissors?"

She shakes her head. "AJ. I said no, drop it."

The boy frowns once again, slumping over in his chair. "You know you won't be able to tell me no forever, right?" He mumbles, and Clem glares.

"What did you just say?"

He wisens up, knowing she heard. "Nothing, I didn't mean it."

He gets back to looking through the binoculars, and moments later, he points out into the darkness. "Hey, I see something!"

"Not a walker?" Clem asks curiously as he hands her the binoculars.

"Look."

As she looks through the binoculars, I rest my rifle on the ledge, looking through it. Sure enough, I can see something moving among the trees. In the pale moonlight I see them, maybe half a dozen troops and two horses, carts attached to them.

"I count six people, and two horses. Are these your raider friends?" I ask her.

"I'd put a lot of money on it. This is it."

For some reason, I grin. "Showtime."

* * *

I'm the last to get down as Clem and AJ get the others to huddle around. We go through one final check. The traps are ready. We've got our tables flipped on their sides for cover. The piece de resistance, so to say, Mitch's explosive, is ready to blow these assholes to kingdom come.

"If they get through, I'll keep them focused on me. That should give Willy and Mitch time to set up the bomb." She reminds us.

"I'll set it under the carts. It'll work, I promise." He assures us. I glance over at him, and him back to me, the two of us both nod to one another.

"If they get in, we fall back to the Admin Building. Right into our traps. We set that off, and it'll do some real damage. Brett, we'll need you on sniper support from your perch. Are you absolutely certain you can see the entire entrance?"

I nod. "One hundred percent. I'll be able to see them from the only way they can get in. Just give me the signal to start shooting."

"Alright then. So, any last words of wisdom, Clem?" Louis asks.

"No matter what happens, look out for-"

**CRACK**

Omar falls to the ground with a pained cry as the rest of us scatter. I find myself behind one of the downed tables with Clementine, not too far from Omar, still writhing in pain just a few yards in front of us.

I poke my head out as I see the muzzle flash coming from the sniper's rifle, a round lodging itself into a table behind us. I dart out from behind cover, running to Omar, despite the sniper's gunfire, narrowly missing my knees and suffering a similar fate to Omar. I grab the boy by his shoulders, dragging him behind cover, as more shots whizz past me. I get him back behind cover, as Clem grabs my arm.

"I'll help him. Get to your spot!"

I nod as I rush inside, hearing a gravelly voice yell out. "Come on! PUSH!"

Another woman's voice echoes, in almost a sing-songy way, which only sends chills up my spine.

"Clementine? I know you're in there! Clementine?"

"Open up kids!" The same man's voice from before yells out as I hear crashing noises, likely them trying to break in. "This doesn't have to get any uglier."

I jump down onto the low roof, setting my feet just as I hear one massive crash. The gates fly open, and the raiders walk in, rather smugly. Two men, three women, and the sniper, who stopped firing shots, make up everyone who came. As the five who walked in start to spread out, Clem pops out from cover.

"Lilly!" She yells out, pointing her bow at the tall brunette woman. "Move, and I'll shoot!"

One of the men points his rifle at her, and another one, an older man with the gravelly voice, yells back to her. "You won't get the chance."

Lilly raises her hand, indicating for her people to stand down, as she slowly approaches Clem. "Where's our new recruits?"

"They're not yours!" Clem growls back at her.

Lilly turns back to her troops as they start to spread out, looking for us.

"We're gonna find them, you know." Lilly tells Clem. "And then we'll take them. And you. And your little boy. If you don't want this to get any messier than it already has, you'll surrender now."

"Take me." Clem volunteers. "You want soldiers? Fine. Take me with you. But leave everyone else."

I'm stunned by Clem's offer, but then I see that she's bluffing. Behind the raiders, I see Willy and Mitch setting up the bomb on one of the carts. This is all a ruse to buy them time.

Lilly looks at her curiously, and I can't tell if she's calling the bluff or not. "You'd do that? You'd come with me if I let the others go?"

Clem simply nods back.

"You've changed." Lilly says to her as she crosses her arms. "God, you are just like him. Lee would've been heartbroken, knowing he taught you all the wrong things. That the sweet little girl he protected turned out like this."

"He taught me how to survive." Clem fires back. "How to kill. Lee would be proud of me."

Lilly scoffs. "Yeah, some job he did. He still died, Clementine. Tell me, how long did it take for everyone in that group to die? How long did it take for you to realize that everything Lee taught and did for you only led to more suffering, more pain, more death?"

"Ian's still alive." Clem informs her. "And his settlement is close by. You should leave, before his people come looking for me."

"Ian…" Lilly glares. "That scumbag. He left me on the side of the road with nothing at all. I'll never forgive him. Not after that shit."

"You tried to kill his wife. And failed, by the way." Clem reminds her, almost in a taunting way. "You don't deserve his forgiveness. He's a better person than you could've ever dreamt of being."

"Whatever." She snarls, "What I did seven years ago doesn't matter. What does matter is our needs now, and if you won't help me find the others, I'll find someone who will. We've recruited from this school before." She smirks, before walking around, announcing out to the others. "Minnie wanted to come along tonight, to tell you how well she's adjusted to our life. How happy she is. She said she had a girlfriend back here. Friends she missed. One guy, she said he could always make her laugh, no matter what."

I glance over to the left, there they are. Violet and Louis. I can't tell in the dark, but I can only assume how they're feeling right now. Especially Violet. Jesus…

"But the one she misses the most? Her little brother."

From right by Louis and Violet, I see Tenn poke his head out. With a slight hesitation, he walks out into the open, right into view.

"Where are they?" He asks her.

"Let me take you to them." She coaxes the boy, who looks uneasy, and rightfully so. "You'll be happier where they are, and they'll be so happy to see their little brother. They both miss you so much."

"Don't listen, Tenn! You know she's lying!" Clem warns him, but it's too late. She grabs Tenn, holding a knife to his throat.

A bright flash and a loud boom engulf the area as I have to shield my eyes for a second. The bomb went off, and it did some serious damage. One of the troops on the ground, regaining her footing, grabs her rifles and takes shots at Clem. I patiently line up my sights, finger inching toward the trigger, but something else catches my eye. Benji, that clever bastard, uses the commotion to sneak along the wall, molotov in hand. He lights it, throwing it toward a tree, and suddenly the entire thing is up in flames, along with the sniper in the branches, whose flaming body falls from the tree with a thud as his dying screams are soon drained out by the fire.

To the left, I see Mitch dart out, rushing Lilly.

"Mitch, get back!" I yell to the boy. But, he ignores me, running right at her. With her quick thinking, she sticks her knife into Mitch's throat, holding him in place as she digs it deeper, before letting his body drop, making sure to puncture his brain, and keep him dead.

"MITCH! NO!" Willy cries out to his friend. Fuckin' Hell, he's gone. God damn it.

"Kill who you have to! Take the rest!" Lilly announces to her troops, as they start firing at the kids, shooting arrows and throwing rocks back at the adults.

I line up my sights on one of the troops, the tall, bearded fucker, and my crosshair slowly makes its way up his body, when I feel a spasm in my arm, and I accidently squeeze the trigger. Thankfully, the shot still lands, as he drops to the ground, holding his knee, but I'm met with shots back at me. I duck down behind the roof, just to see most of the kids falling back to the Admin Building, and I peek back out to see them following, so I take this as a chance to recoup with my brother, who sits behind cover, loading his bow.

It seems all the raiders followed the kids inside, which allows me to slide off the roof, down toward my brother. As I land, I immediately run behind the cover, kneeling next to him.

"You good?" I ask him

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. But Mitch-"

"I know. He's gone. We've gotta focus on this now. There's, what, five of em left?"

"Four." He corrects me. "I saw the log trap claim a victim, the big bearded guy."

"Beautiful. So what's the plan?"

He shrugs, peering out from behind the cover. "Shit…"

"What is it?"

"They've got some of them." He tells me. "Aasim, Omar, Violet, Tenn, Willy… shit…"

I look over, and sure enough, two of the raiders hold our friends at gunpoint, walking them out of the Admin Building. The two women, an older white woman, and a younger black woman, both hold rifles. But wait, where's Lilly and Abel?

A hand picks me up by the collar, and another does to Benji, as the two of us start getting dragged towards the others. We both look up to see Lilly, who snuck toward us "You kids are real pieces of work, huh?" she mutters as Benji and I try to squirm free, to little avail. She sends a swift kick to my side and I let out a pained groan as she sets us down. "These two are troublemakers, I can already tell. Keep an eye on them." She orders her troops, both of them responding with nods, and nasty glares our way, the latter of which I gladly return.

"Any ideas?" Benji asks, and I lightly shake my head.

"Let me think. If we get an opening, we have to take it." I hiss back to him.

That opening comes less than a minute later, as Clem and Abel crash out of the Headmaster's office, and the two struggle for a bit before they crash through the balcony down to the courtyard ground. Clem lands on top, as Abel writhes in pain and agony, his leg bent in a couple different directions.

That's all we need as the two raiders look over to see what's going on, and I take off, darting away and sliding behind cover. I dropped my 700 when Lilly grabbed us, leaving me with my M9. I peek out, and some of them got away. Others weren't so lucky. Tenn and Willy managed to sneak away. Benji, Omar, and Aasim weren't able to move, and I see Violet fighting with Lilly, the two of them wrestling as Clem struggles to get up, trying to escape Abel. Omar and Aasim are both butted with the black woman's rifle and loaded onto the cart, knocked out. The other raider, the white woman, drags Louis from his cover. The black woman, setting her eyes on Violet, drags her off of Lilly and toward the cart. Finally, Lilly, free from Violet, casually strolls over toward Benji.

I point my handgun at her, my vision beginning to blur from the smoke in the area, and I start firing at her wildly. Despite this, she keeps coming towards him, not fazed by the shots barely missing her, and almost smirking at me. As my magazine empties, she grabs my brother, holding him hostage with her knife to his throat.

I load another magazine, aiming it at her, but I can't fire. It's too close to Benji, too close to my friends. I feel myself freeze as I'm forced to sit and watch in horror as she hits him in the head with the handle of her knife, and tossing his limp body in with the others.

As the two raiders drag my friends toward the carts, the black woman clutches at her shoulder as one of Clem's arrows lodges itself in her shoulder. Louis uses this chance to run away. Unfortunately for Violet, before she can do anything, the other raider smacks her in the head with her rifle, and her unconscious body is thrown with the others. We have no choice but to watch as our friends, and my brother, are taken away as the carts drive off, I look on in shock that my brother is gone. Lilly takes one last chance to glare at us before joining the rest of her people, slowly fading into the night like ghosts.

"Benji… Benji… BENJI!"

Those of us remaining gather around Mitch's body, with mixed levels of sadness among us. I take this as a chance to look at who's left. Me, Clem, AJ, Willy, Ruby, Tenn, and Louis. There's seven of us left. Four captured, one dead. We lost almost half our people tonight, and yet here we are. We held them off. We're still here.

But Benji, my brother, he's gone. They took him. And I froze there. I could've shot her, but I was scared. Scared I wouldn't hit her, scared I'd hit… him.

"God damn… Aasim, Omar, Benji, fuckin' Violet. They're just… gone." Louis says, in pure shock.

"This should go without saying, but we are at war with these sick fucks." I announce to the others. "What happened tonight, we're gonna get back at them, and we're gonna hit 'em where it hurts. And we're gonna get our fucking friends back!"

"If I knew where they were going, I'd burn the place down myself." Louis remarks angrily, and Clem silently nods in agreement.

I glance over to my right, and a small smirk forms on my face. "Patience, Louis. We may not know where they are, but we have someone who does."

We walk over to the light pole, where Ruby did an excellent job tying up Abel, his leg broken in a couple sports, several open wounds, and bruises all over his face and head. He weakly looks up at us, a pained expression on his face, and I whip him with my handgun, putting him out like a light.

**Sorry this is a little later than normal, truth be told I forgot it's Friday. Anyways, GOD DAMN How about that last episode from last Tuesday? I can already tell it's gonna be a lot of fun but also a total bitch to write in the coming weeks. But, being about halfway through TFS, we're also about halfway through the story, actually a bit more than halway in terms of chapters but idk. Hope you guys enjoyed, and see you next week.**


	9. The Other Side

**Chapter 9 - The Other Side**

**The Next Morning**

There's been a chilling silence among those of us that are still here. The aftermath of everything that happened last night, it's left us without words. When you lose half your group like that, what are you supposed to even say? When your own little brother just got kidnapped by some raiders, how are you supposed to think straight?

I don't know the answer to that question, but I do know one thing. This isn't over. They've got our friends, so we're gonna get them back. And once we've got our friends back, we're gonna hit them back. Harder. We'll make them regret ever thinking about attacking us, and we'll make sure the message sticks with them.

I step out of the dorms to the embrace of a cool morning breeze, the sky still a pale pink, the sun barely even up yet. In the middle of the courtyard, Willy kneels next to Mitch's corpse, mourning the boy he looked up to, and I feel my heart sink. Mitch was a total dick, and I never really cared for him, but he threw himself out there so Tenn would be safe, I can't do anything but appreciate that.

Beside him, Clem comforts the boy, offering her sympathies, even though she and Mitch weren't exactly on great terms, either. Clem's a good person, I really wish Mitch had seen that.

I walk over to pay my respects as I see Louis walking over to join us, he also visibly uneasy after that whole ordeal.

"Abel's tied up in the basement. He's passed out from all the pain." He tells me and Clem, both of us nodding back to him as he crouches over next to Willy. "Hey buddy, it's time to bury him."

"I'll help you bury him-" Tenn offers, before Willy angrily shoves him to the ground.

"Get away from him! You're the reason he's dead!"

"Willy!" Ruby exclaims, shocked.

"Willy, back off." I warn him.

"It's true! We had a plan, and that idiot messed it up!" He yells at Tenn, who looks like he's about to cry.

"Willy! Cut it out!" Clem yells back at the boy. "It's not his fault. You know whose fault it is."

"I can't believe you're defending him! This… This is bullshit!"

Without a word, Tenn runs off, and all eyes go back to Willy, who doesn't seem to show any regret.

"Willy, that was totally out of line." Ruby tells the boy. But before he can respond, Louis intervenes.

"I'll handle Tenn. Go talk to Abel, see if you can't find out where Lilly took our friends. And, don't be afraid to rough him up a bit, but I just couldn't do it. Maybe you'll get more out of him than I did." He tells Clem.

"Sure thing Lou." Clem nods.

"You mind if I tag along? This fucker's made it personal." Clem nods to my request, and the two of us walk down into the basement.

* * *

The two of us make our way into the basement, into the deeper part where AJ and Abel are. I've been trying to avoid this place, for one obvious reason, but this is important. I can put aside my personal feelings for the place if it means we can get some information out of Abel.

The first thing I see in the basement is that damn bloodstain, the reason I've been avoiding this place. Brody's blood. Fuck…

I let out a sigh at the sight of her blood, and Clem gives me a supportive pat on the back, to which I can't help but smile. But even then, the more I stare, the more I feel the anger boiling inside me. But, I set it aside, and I make sure to give Rosie, who lies down next to the bloodstain, a nice scratch before I make my way over to Abel and AJ.

In the back corner of the room, there they are. In one chair, AJ, spinning the chamber of his revolver while in the other, Abel, looking as roughed up as I remember him, passed out in the chair, leg still fucked up as Hell, too.

"You still want dibs?" Clem asks the boy, who looks conflicted.

"It's different like this, with him all broken. But I still hate him."

"Should we get this started?" I ask them, and I'm met with a pair of nods. So, I walk over to his unconscious body, and I send a mean slap across his face, leaving my hand stinging as he wakes up with a jolt.

"Rise and shine, asshole!" Clem yells in his face afterwards, and for a brief moment, he looks confused, before coming to his senses.

"Well, that ain't no way to wake an old man up from his afternoon nap. I was having a nice dream, too, about a girl I knew before all this. She also had me tied up, but I wasn't her prisoner if you get my meaning." He remarks, and I give him a look of disgust as he starts coughing a bit. "Now no offense, but I'd rather go back to my dream, so if you don't mind-"

AJ sends several quick kicks to his hurt leg, getting a scream out of Abel as he writhes in his chair.

"Damn it, squirt! Easy on the broken parts."

I get Abel with a hard punch to the gut, which gets another groan out of him, and a few more coughs.

As he gathers himself together, he looks back up at me. "You've never done this before, have you?"

I look at him, confused. How does he know?

"First thing you learn, I can't tell you shit if I pass out from the pain." He tells me with a shiteating grin.

"Well then, I guess you better stay awake then, and give us the information we want. So, where did Lilly take our people." I growl back to him.

"It doesn't matter. As soon as she gets there, she's gonna turn around and come right back for me. You better give me the five-star treatment. If I'm smiling when she gets here, you might just be able to trade me for a little mercy. We underestimated you little shits, but Lilly won't make the same mistake twice."

A sick, twisted idea crosses my mind, and I ponder it for a moment before lightly chuckling. "Five-star? I'll show you five-star treatment." I walk back to where I was, giving Rosie another head scratch as I grab her leash. As she takes notice of Abel, she starts barking, trying to break free and attack him.

"You won't do that, you don't have it in you." He tries calling my bluff, but there's one issue.

I'm not bluffing.

"Whoops." I sarcastically say as I drop the leash, and Rosie runs over to Abel, grabbing his bad leg in her jaws, and bites down hard.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH! CALL IT OFF! CALL IT OFF YOU FUCKING PSYCHOPATH!" He frantically begs us, and although I have no desire to call it off, I guess Clem does, as she whistles to Rosie, who goes back to lying down.

"Just tell us where they took our friends so we can go and get them back!" AJ warns him. Despite this, he still seems hesitant, so I add some extra… incentive.

"Rosie hasn't eaten today, if you're still on the fence about all this."

"Lilly will never give 'em up." He coughs out. "The only reason we came here was for more manpower. Losing Yonatan, Dimitri, and me, for four sprouts who can barely hold a gun, even a dummy like me can do the math on that one."

"Doesn't matter. We're gonna get our people back." Clem responds.

"You don't get it, do you? It's a bloodbath out there. From one community to another, from Richmond to the coast."

"I'm from Richmond, asshole. I haven't seen any of this 'bloodbath' you speak of." Clem informs him, but he doesn't back down.

"Well, clearly you aren't looking hard enough. Back at the Delta, we're at war with some really sick fucks who make me look like the Virgin Mary. These sick fucks, they're hiding in plain sight, and I'm sure you've seen them, you just haven't realized it. They're out there, and they're dangerous. We need people to fight it. Soldiers who do what we say. Point the guns the way we tell them to. You little turds were supposed to be easy pickings."

Clem grabs him by the head, and forcefully slams it onto the little desk attached to the chair, to which he yelps in pain, but then he starts chuckling a bit, and I'm not sure why.

"I'm starting to think you're mad at me." He says with a sly grin. "You think we like doing raids like this? Our home is under threat. It's a good home, built to last. I'd do a lot to protect it. Maybe you kids understand that."

"And I'd do a lot to get my brother and my friends back, so let's cut the shit and get down to business." I respond, and he gets a little serious.

"Ok, fine. You wanna find your people? Front pocket, the answer to all your questions." Clem reaches in, pulling out a rolled up piece of paper. "Read it." He instructs.

"Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. What the fuck? Is this code?"

"No, it's fucking Leviticus." He corrects her. "I was hoping it'd be some timely moralistic shit about turning the other cheek. Well come on, that thing isn't gonna light itself. You wanna know where your friends are? A smoke'll clear my mind."

She turns back to me. "You got a light?"

I nod, sparking my lighter as she lights up the cigarette for him. But without a second thought to it, she plants the burning end of the cigarette onto his cheek, burning him badly and forcing another yell out of him. With another punch to his gut, she gets in his face.

"I'm out of patience, Abel. Tell me where Lilly went with my people, NOW!"

He doesn't answer. Instead, he starts coughing violently, which soon leads to him dry heaving, which then becomes a large spurt of blood being vomited up, pooling up right next to him.

"Shit…Oh fuck, this is bad." He gasps.

"That's a lot of blood." AJ observes. That, it is.

"When you pushed me off that balcony, something must've burst inside of me." He says to us, actually looking scared. "Shit… I never wanted things to end like this. Everything got out of hand so quickly… Now look at me, I'm a fucking mess."

"Is he gonna turn?" AJ asks Clem.

"No!" Abel objects. "Please, no! My whole life, everything I ever got, I got with my own two hands, and my will. For my body to turn on me, to take control… I'll tell you to find Lilly. Just promise, you won't let me turn."

"Fine. You give us what we want, I'll make sure you don't turn. You have my word." Clem promises him, much to his relief.

"Thank you…" He weakly tells her. "We have a boat docked a few miles West of here, at an old fishing pier. Your friends are on that boat. I can't believe you got me to tell you that..."

Clem and I glance at each other for a moment, before nodding to one another.

"You got what you wanted. Now please, don't let me become one of those things. Please…" The man cries out. I silently scoff. What a fucking baby.

"You're gonna be stuck in that broken shell of a body forever." Clem tells the man, absolutely shattering any hope he once had.

"You… You evil cunt. You gave me your word."

"You were stupid to believe me."

"And you were stupid to believe I told you everything!" He gasps out as his pained whimpers grow fainter and fainter. He head rolls to the side, and that's it. He's gone.

"You don't have to see this, AJ." Clem warns her boy, but he stands tall, not wanting to move.

"I want to."

Minutes later, he comes back. It starts off as a gurgling noise, which soon becomes the raspy moan that plagued my nightmares for years. His milky white eyes open as he turns to AJ, immediately trying to pounce on the boy, if it weren't for the binds holding his arms down.

AJ stands there, stunned, as Walker Abel can't reach him, but still lashes out at him. I whistle loudly, and Walker Abel stops what he's doing. "Hey, dumbass!"

As he looks back at me, I put a single round from my M9 into Abel's skull, killing him instantly, his corpse slumps over in the chair.

"We've got what we need. Let's go. We've got a boat to catch."

* * *

_**Benji's POV**_

I wake up with a groan and a pounding headache. My vision dazed, I blink twice before I realize I'm laying on a cold wood floor. I glance around the room, and it looks like I'm in a jail cell. Shit, that's right. The Delta kidnapped me. I stand up, trying to gain my footing as I slowly walk over to the door, locked, of course.

"Benji, you're up!" I hear Aasim's voice from the cell next to me.

"Yeah, I am. Where the Hell are we?"

"You're on the Delta's ship." A girl's voice tells me, and sure enough, there she is. A taller redhead with an intimidating glare in her eyes meets my gaze. I recognize her. That's-

"You're Minerva, right?"

She nods once. "That's right. You're a new face, Benji. I guess you came to the school after I joined the Delta."

"'Joined' being used very loosely, I assume." I remark. "You mean when Marlon gave you and your sister away, right?"

She ignores my remark, as I hear Lilly's voice coming towards us. "Is the last one awake?"

"Yes, ma'am." She confirms to Lilly, before pointing her crossbow at me. "Step back."

Not wanting to get shot, I reluctantly comply, stepping back a few steps as the door slowly creaks open, and Lilly walks in, a smug expression on her face.

"Benji, Benji, Benji. You look like a fighter. I like that. The Delta could use more people like you."

I simply scowl back, not saying a word.

"Tell me, Benji, when your brother saw you getting taken away, and he did nothing to help you, he just watched me drag you away, how did that make you feel?"

I scoff angrily. "I see what you're trying to do. You want me to turn on Brett. I'm not gonna do it. Your mind games aren't gonna work on me."

Amused, she smiles. "You'll come around to us soon enough, don't worry. You'll find that we're a strong community, with lots of people and it's entirely self-sustaining, a surplus of food and amenities you'd never think you'd have again. Hot water, Electricity, Clean clothes, Ice cream, it can all be yours. All we ask is you contribute to defending our home. That sounds reasonable, doesn't it?"

"You know damn well I'm not doing a thing for you or your community. You're wasting your time."

She scowls back at me. "Yeah, that's about the reaction I was expecting. Don't worry. Like I said, you'll come around to us soon enough. I'll make sure of that. In the meantime, try and play nice. Sound good?"

I stay quiet, glaring at her.

"She asked you a question. Answer her." Minerva orders me, pointing the bow at me.

I have a simple response to Minerva. "Fuck you."

Lilly chuckles once again. "You're definitely a fighter. I like that. A little defiant, but we'll fix that soon enough. We'll break you. I know we will."

With that she walks up to me, and with a soft giggle, throws a quick punch straight to the diaphragm, knocking the wind out of me and dropping me back to the floor, wheezing for air as I see her walk out, shutting the cell door behind her and clicking the lock shut.

"Is that the best you've got?" I wheeze out to her. She doesn't respond, but I hear her chuckle as her footsteps fade away. As I stumble back to the door, I look out at who I can see. Right there, Violet, a strong scowl on her face as she stands there.

"Hey, Vi. You alright?"

"She let me get captured… Clem… abandoned me…" She mutters, but I shake my head.

"You know that's not true. Clem would never let us go without a fight."

"Then why are we here?" She yells back at me. "She saw me, but she saved fucking Louis instead, so now we're here. That bitch!"

"Why would she let you go, Violet? Think about it. It makes no sense." Aasim tries to reason with her, but to no avail.

"I don't know what her reasons were, but her actions said all I needed to hear." She snarls, before walking away from her cell door, laying in her bed.

"So, any ideas?" I ask over to Aasim and Omar, not sure if I'm even expecting response of any substance.

"Do we have any choices? I mean, we're kinda stuck here." Aasim responds. "Plus, Omar's on one leg right now. He's not getting far, even if we get out of here, somehow."

Omar groans in protest. "I'm fine… If we can get out of here, I'll keep up."

I sigh. "Well, I guess you're right. We don't have much of a choice. Let's just hope we get out of here soon. I don't like where this is going."

* * *

_**Brett's POV**_

Clem leads the way as the five of us continue down a dusty path through the woods, to where Abel told us the ship is. The plan is pretty simple: Scout the place out, see if we can find a way onboard, and then get out of there. Best case scenario, we find a way on, and we can sneak our people out, no shots fired, no harm done. Worst case, well, you know what the worst case is.

"Guys, there it is." Louis points out ahead of us, and sure enough, there it is. A massive cargo ship, docked at the pier. The five of us take cover behind some grass, as AJ hands me his binoculars.

I take a look through them, getting a view of the ship itself. I see a few crew members , a few of them the women from last night, walking around on the top deck.

"See anything?" Clem asks me, and I nod.

"Sure do. I see a few of the Delta fucks that attacked us. This is definitely the boat."

"As if there were going to be any other boats around here." Louis says in a mocking tone.

"Not the time, Louis."

"Let's spread out and get a look at the area around here. Keep your heads low." Clem instructs us."

We spread out, getting a good look at the area. I find myself looking in the same direction as Willy, who eyes a large amount of scrap metal and other shit lying on a dock near the river.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" He asks me.

"I think I am." I nod as I raise my rifle, looking through the scope at the area. There's a few troops sorting them, but it's generally pretty undefended. That metal could be really useful.

"We could steal those supplies, and use the rafts and ride them down river. It'd be easy." He whispers to me. And I grin with another nod.

"I like the way you're thinking, Willy."

As the five of us regroup, we decide to work out a new plan.

"Well, they've got guards posted on the pier and the boat. There's no way we can take them all at once. Our only hope is to distract them while we sneak on board." Clem starts, before AJ chimes in.

"We should burn their stuff."

"That works," Clem nods in agreement. "We can burn the supplies, or the hay for their horses."

"And then what we don't burn, we should take. Ruby would love having the horses, but I'd rather have the supplies. I could use it to build traps, weapons, all sorts of fun shit."

"Yeah," Clem agrees. "We'll steal their supplies, and burn the hay as our distraction. If you're going to steal from the rafts, do it carefully."

Willy nods as Clem continues her plan. "The fire will lure the raiders away, letting us sneak onto the pier."

"If anyone sees us, they'll shoot on sight." I note, getting uneasy looks from Louis and Willy, but Cem softly smiles as an idea crosses her mind.

"You remember that guy I told you about, James?"

"The guy that wears the walker skin?" I ask her, to which she nods.

"When we got ambushed by Lilly and Abel, he sent walkers at them to let us escape. Maybe we could convince him to do it again." She suggests. "If we lead a big enough group of them onto the beach, we can blend in without being seen."

We all blankly respond, before I ask her one last question. "So, how do you blend in without being seen? That's kinda a big deal. We walk into that herd, we'll be torn to bits."

"You cover yourself in walker guts, and then they can't see you!" AJ enthusiastically answers my question, and I stare back at the boy, both confused and disgusted. I look back at Clem, whose soft smile confirms what he just said, and I just blink twice.

"Please tell me he's joking."

"Not one bit. We've done it dozens of times. They think you're one of them, so long as you keep quiet and don't run."

"That's… really fucking gross." I remark, and Louis agrees.

"We can talk about this later, we should find James and find a way to do all this before we get to that stage of the plan." Clem tells us, as we start to head back.

"Hell yeah! Let's find out how much your friend charges for his… services." Louis agrees rather enthusiastically.

"So what happens after we get everyone back? I mean, the raiders'll just come back and attack us again. What then?"

Before Clem can answer, she freezes, and we all do the same. Not too far away, a chopping noise echos off the tree, coming from a clearing not too far from here. We all dash for the nearest piece of cover, and I find myself behind a tree. I turn to see Clem behind an adjacent tree. She and I both look out from behind, and just barely, I see a girl, bright autumn hair, somewhat taller, chopping away at some wood with an axe. She and I nod to each other as we both sneak out from cover, knives drawn, ready for confrontation.

I'm the first to approach her, and without warning I grab her shoulder with one hand, my knife goes to her throat with my other. "Drop the axe." I instruct her.

She complies, dropping it without resistance, her rapid breathing the only noise being made, so I start asking questions.

"Where are my friends and my brother? Where do you keep the people you steal?"

"I don't know what you're-" I put the knife right up against her throat.

"Lady, you do not wanna fuck with me right now. Answer the question, or I'll cut your throat and leave you to the walkers."

"The boiler deck. Second deck. They're all there, unharmed. I promise." She concedes.

"Brett, stop!" Louis quietly intervenes. With the distraction, she shoves me away and turns around to face us, and the glare of her icy blue eyes meets mine, but before I can react, Louis speaks again. "Hey Minnie…"

The two of them embrace, and her demeanor completely changes. "After the attack, I wasn't sure… I mean, I heard they burned half your school down. Who survived? Ruby? Mitch? Brody? Tenn?"

"Ruby and Tenn made it." Willy informs her. "Mitch didn't. And Brody, she died before."

My heart sinks hearing Brody's name and seeing Minnie's expression after. With a frown, she softly asks another question. "Tenn's boots holding up ok?"

"His boots?" AJ asks, confused.

"They're so old, they're more holes than rubber." She explains. "I duct-taped them up the last time I saw him, but that was a while ago."

"His boots are holding up fine." I tell her, but she only glares back at me and Clem.

"You're Brett, Benji's brother. And you're Clementine. You guys took over after Marlon died. It's weird, I thought everyone would want to lean on their own."

"Yeah, we're in charge." Clem confirms.

"Well what a fantastic job you guys have done." She snarls back at us, causing us to scowl back at her.

"Excuse me?" Clem asks her.

"Abel figured he could talk Marlon into handing everyone over like he and Lilly did… like they did before. You ruined the whole plan." She mutters to me, getting right into my face.

"What are you talking about?" Louis asks. "Marlon traded you and Sophie away like it was nothing."

"Yeah, and we all survived it." She counters, "Marlon would've never made us fight, the way you did. He wouldn't have gotten people killed."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I hiss back to her. "He murdered Brody, my god damn girlfriend, when she tried to tell the others about what he did, when he gave you and your sister away."

"What?" She looks back in me, in a mild form of horror and disgust.

"You fucking heard me. He bashed her head in for trying to tell the truth to the rest of us. He took her from me, but please, tell me more about how he wouldn't get people killed."

She blankly stares at me, not sure what to say, before Louis asks her a question. "Minerva, where's Sophie?"

Her look of despair only intensifies as she looks down at the ground. "She… she died protecting the Delta. A hero."

"A hero? God you-" Clem is immediately cut off by that same chilling voice.

"Minerva!" Lilly calls out, and we all scatter behind cover, to avoid being seen. "Finish up and head back! I want to be in before dark." She instructs the girl, who hesitantly glances at us, before turning back to the woman.

"Yes, ma'am."

As Lilly walks back towards the ship, Minnie bends over, picking up her axe as she walks over to us, a pissed off look on her face, once again. "Our boat leaves for the Delta in two days. Then, it'll be a couple of weeks before we come back for the rest of you. When we do, don't fight. The only way you're gonna save your people is to let us take them. I'm serious. Don't fight this." She warns us.

"If you guys come back, get ready for a bloodbath, because we'll be shooting to kill." I warn back to her. "So be smart, and don't do it."

She softly chuckles, giving a sly smile as she does so. "Tough talk coming from you. Just like his brother. Let's see how long it takes Lilly to break him."

With a confident look on her face, she hums a tune while carrying the axe on her shoulder, walking back to the Delta's ship.

"Are you ok?" Clem asks Louis, who has an uneasy look as he looks on at Minerva walking away.

"It doesn't change anything. We still have to get onto that boat." He says in the most serious way I've heard Louis say anything ever, as Clem walks to the front of the group.

"You all should head home. Start getting things ready for the attack, and get everyone else caught up on the plan. AJ and I will go find James." She tells the rest of us, and she and the boy go off deeper into the woods, leaving me, Louis, and Willy to find our way back.

"Minnie she… shit…" Willy murmurs, and I frown to the kid.

"I get it, Willy, but she's been manipulated by the Delta. I hate to say it, but I think she's too far gone."

"That's not the Minnie we know anymore, Willy. And I hate to say it, but I think Brett's right." Louis agrees with me. "But damn, I hope I'm wrong."

"Me, too." Willy agrees as the three of us start the long walk back.

* * *

"Welcome back, y'all!" Ruby warmly greets us as we come back. "Where's Clem and her boy?"

"We'll explain later." Louis tells her. "But to put it bluntly, we've got a fight to get ready for."

"So we're going after 'em? Good." The wheels start turning in her head as she comes up with an idea. "Oh! I just thought of somethin'! If we're all about to fight these raiders, we should have a party. It might be our last chance to, y'all know?"

"That sounds awesome!" Willy exclaims, and I shrug in agreement. I guess celebrating our possible last night alive couldn't hurt.

"What do you need from us?" Louis asks her, and she points down toward one of the buildings.

"I need y'all to clear out the music room, I think that's the best place to do it. I know there's some old decorations in one of the closets in the Admin Building that would be just perfect." She instructs us. "If we can get this place cleaned up, we'll have a great time!"

"Well, we've got our assignments, boys. Let's get ready for the party." I grin, and the others do as well., and the three of us go off to the music room to get ready.

Hours later, of mostly moving around tables and old books, we see Ruby walk into the room, with Clem and AJ by her side. "Hey y'all, looks like things are coming together!" Ruby smiles warmly.

"Yeah, just about. Anything else you want us to do?" I ask her as I drop a stack of books onto one of the tables I pushed off to the side.

"Well, we need to figure out lighting, some music, and something to write on the banner." She tells us as she points to some candles Tenn brought out, a record player that Louis found, and a plain white banner that Willy found somewhere. Hey, where is Willy?

"Hey, if we're gonna die, we should have some fun first." Clem remarks, and Louis grins.

"That's the spirit, Clem!"

Clem walks over to the record player, putting on an old jazz record, and soon enough, the sounds of piano and saxophone fills the room, and it almost feels soothing, like I'm listening to a jazz playlist on my iPod while laying in a hammock on a warm summer afternoon. Like we're not even in a zombie apocalypse. That kind of relaxing I haven't felt in over seven years.

Clem then thoroughly inspects each candle, before ultimately deciding on the green one. I don't know what her thought process was, but her answer was an emphatic one, so that's that.

Last of all, the banner. She takes a minute to mull it over, before she says something short and sweet. "See you on the other side."

"I'm guessing 'Fuck Delta' isn't really an option?" I chuckle, and Tenn scowls at me.

"Brett…"

"Nope. 'Flip Delta' doesn't work here, buddy. I'm sorry."

"I like what Clem said," AJ tells us. "She tells me that when she needs me to be brave."

"Well, I think we all need some of that right now." Ruby agrees, before turning to Tenn. "Hey, Tenn? Go break out your paintbrush and write it out, please."

The boy nods and walks back to his room to get some art supplies, and Ruby marvels at the sight of it all.

"This place is gonna look good!"

Just as I'm about to sit down, Ruby turns to Clem and I. "Oh right, Willy was lookin' for the two of you. Said he wanted to show y'all something big, but he wouldn't show me what the Devil it is. He's up in the Headmaster's office."

Clem and I nod to each other as we walk over to the office. She leads the way, cracking open the door to see Willy, hard at work with various books open and scattered around the floor. "Clem! Brett! Check it out. I found a buncha books on ships. There's some awesome stuff about fires at sea and explosions and stuff. The key is the boiler."

Clem and I look at each other, confused, before turning back to Willy. "What're you talking about?" She asks him.

"I have an idea about how to stop those asshole from coming back here after we've rescued the others. And stop them from hurting anyone ever again. We're gonna blow up the boat."

"I don't hate the idea, but that sounds kinda dangerous, Willy." I remind him. "We need to make sure we don't get ourselves killed over this. That defeats the whole purpose of this." Clem nods in agreement.

"Obviously, there's a few details to work out, but don't worry. I'll make sure there's time for you to get off the boat before she explodes. Trust me, this'll work. We'll be ok."

From downstairs, we hear the party start to liven up a bit more, and as the three of us make our way downstairs, my first sight of the party is AJ, dancing in the middle of the room, which has everyone laughing and smiling and feeling good, myself included.

"This is great, Ruby." I smile, despite the sinking feeling inside me. I'm worried about Benji. Is he even alive? Fuck, I hope so. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if he died cause of these Delta fucks.

"Oh, you ain't seen nothin' yet, Brett. Look at what I found, y'all!" Ruby pulls out a large box of folders, raising it proudly.

"What's that?" Clem asks her.

"There are our official Ericson's psych evaluations and probationary reports. They explain why all of us got sent to the school in the first place." She explains.

"Aaaand how we all got stuck here as long as we did." Louis adds.

As Ruby sits down, she explains further. "I thought if we're all going on this crazy mission together, you might as well know who we really are. So, I'll ready what some of the adults thought about us, and you have to guess which one of us fits the bill." She explains as she pulls out a file.

She reads the first report. "While otherwise a remarkable student, 'Blank' continues to be plagued by fits of anger, uncontrollable cursing, and repeated physical altercations with the senior faculty."

"It's either Aasim or Ruby," I think to myself with a small smile. Which would be more likely to get physical, though, Aasim?

""That's Ruby's file!" Willy blurts out with a loud laugh, and Ruby joins him.

"Guilty as charged."

"Damn, I was thinking you or Aasim, I picked Aasim." I chuckle as well.

"Our sweet Ruby here was a bit of a nightmare when she first showed up. She once chased the home ec teacher around the yard with a barbecue fork this big." Louis adds to the conversation as he shows how big it was.

"Don't worry, that was a long time ago." She says with a chuckle.

"I can totally see it." Clem says with a smile. "When I first met her, she was all like, 'That little motherfucker'" She says with a very heavy and over-exaggerated Southern twang to mock Ruby, making everyone laugh, even AJ, who felt guilty about biting her.

"You guys wanna know why I got sent here?" Willy asks, almost to excitedly. Louis opens his mouth, almost about to stop him as he blurts out anyways. "Chronic masturbation!"

The entire room just stares at Willy, who is all too proud of himself for absolutely killing the mood. I can't even tell if he's serious or not, which is just as scary.

"What does that mean?" AJ kills the silence. Tenn leans over to whisper, but Clem stops him.

"Don't you dare."

Despite this, he leans in, whispering into AJ's ear, and AJ just stares blankly, probably horrified by some of the things he's hearing. Why we're letting a five year old know what masturbation is is beyond me, but I guess that's just how the world is nowadays.

"Uh, anyways, is anyone else getting tired of jazz?" Ruby asks. "Maybe we could change up the music?"

"Yeah, let's change things up a bit. Maybe some country music?" Clem suggests, and Ruby wholeheartedly nods in agreement. I get up, putting the jazz record back in it's puch before looking at the country selection. One record in particular catches my eye. A dual album by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson: _Waylon and Willie_. I remember this. It was one of Dad's favorites. Benji and I never really cared for country music, but Dad loved it. I put the record on the player and music starts filling the room again, and a smile forms on my face thinking about my family. I sit back down with the others as we continue.

"Good taste, Brett." Ruby compliments me. "Waylon and Willie are two of my favorites."

"Dad loved it. Figured it was appropriate to play it now."

Ruby goes through the files, and her expression goes from happy to sad. "I forgot how many we lost…"

"Remember that Justin guy?" Willy asks, and the Ericson residents nod. "And Teresa, and Jasper, that one girl with the colored braces, Joey, Maddie, Lamar.

"Erin." Louis says. "She had the braces."

"Alex, Dewey, Trey, Stephanie. Holy crap, how many of us died?" Willy asks.

"Thirty-Four." Ruby sighs, sifting through the files, as she pulls another one out, and she frowns even further.

"Whose is it?" Clem asks her.

"Violet's."

"Let's not go through that. That's… that's kinda wrong. I can tell you mine, instead." Louis volunteers. "Only if you want, though. It's… not great."

I look at Louis, intrigued. It's Louis, how much trouble could he have caused? He's usually such a happy a well-intended guy, so I have no clue what he could've done. Although, I've been curious myself…

"I mean, if you're comfortable with telling us, then I think we'd like to know." Clem warmly smiles, which he reciprocates.

His smile soon fades away, though, as he remembers what he did. "So, my family was stupid rich. Like, my parents would give me everything I wanted, when I wanted it. Except for one thing: singing lessons. God, I begged my dad. I told him I wanted to be a real musician. But all he'd say was 'You get to be happy, or you get to be rich, can't be both'. I know now that he was just trying to teach me a lesson, but, I hated him for that. So, I decided I'd teach HIM a lesson. I thought, I'll break up my parents' marriage. That'd hurt real bad, right?"

We all stare on in awe. Louis, this funny, easy going guy that we'd known for a while. He did that? That's… kinda fucked up.

"So, I broke into Dad's credit card accounts and made all these purchases in his name. Did this for over a year. This was how rich we were, he never noticed he was spending a fortune on a mistress that I'd made up for him. But I made sure my mom did. I sent her all the receipts for the hotel rooms, the jewelry, all of it. They had a fight all night long. He denied it. She wouldn't have it. I sat in the corner and cried to help it feel more real. When their divorce was final, I told them the truth. I said 'You get to be happy, or you get to be rich, you don't get to be both'. You know… those two would've been happily married forever, but I had to go be a vindictive fuckhead. I wound up here a week after." He finishes, showing remorse, and rightfully so.

But still, he's our friend. And one fucked-up thing he did before all this isn't going to impact what we think of him. The past doesn't matter anymore.

"They said we were bad people. They weren't wrong. Still, none of us deserved to be ditched out here in the middle of the forest by the people that were supposed to make us better."

We get drowned in the silence at what Louis told us, each of us giving uncomfortable and somewhat depressing looks because of it, but thankfully, Tenn breaks the silence.

"Hey, I've got an idea. Do you guys remember when Minnie would sing 'Don't be Afraid?' when all of us used to get scared?"

"Of course I remember," Louis sighs, "I helped compose it."

"Could you maybe play it for us? If Violet was here, she could sing the words, but…"

Louis's face brightens, and gives him a nod. "I'd love to, Tenn."

Louis steps over to the piano, lifting the cover to the keys, and sits on the bench. With a deep breath, he starts playing, and the room fills with the sound of beautiful piano music. I've mentioned how talented Louis is, but this might've been his best work yet. Any feeling of dread or depression or concern in the room immediately lightens, replaced by a surge of confidence and positivity. Like the song name suggests, we don't have to be afraid. Not of the raiders, not of the walkers, nothing.

Omar, Aasim, Violet, Benji, we're coming. We're gonna get you. And we're hit the Delta back. Hard.

I promise.

* * *

The fire crackles softly as the six of us sit around, warmly smiling and talking as dinner slowly cooks, part of a wild turkey Sierra shot while we were walking through the woods. Angie, Sierra's girlfriend, tunes her guitar while Sierra's kids, Jackson and Alyssa, both chat and laugh with their family.

Benji and I, having been with Sierra and Angie for almost a year, felt like part of their family. They're warm, nice, genuinely good people. That's not a kind of person you find anymore, and we were fortunate enough to find four of them, just like that. They gladly took us in and watched us, two orphans who had been travelling by themselves for a while.

Alyssa walks away from the fire to go pee in the woods, as Sierra returns with some bottles of water, collected from a nearby stream. She hands one to each of us as she sits down next to her girlfriend, giving her a kiss on the cheek as Angie starts playing a tune on her guitar. Jackson, a year older than me, turns his attention to a stick her found earlier, whittling it into a pointed weapon, as Benji suggested, for killing walkers.

I take my knife out from its holster, using my shirt to clean it from dirt and walker grime, just as Sierra taught me, making sure not to cut myself in the process. Benji does the same with his, and Sierra notices, giving us a warm smile.

"You boys are getting real good at that." She compliments us, and the two of us smile back.

"We had a good teacher." Benji replies, and Sierra simply laughs back.

Before she can respond, a scream.

Alyssa's.

As we all look over, it happens. Alyssa made a good effort to get away, she really did. But, being twelve, it's to little avail. In the dusk, we can barely see the walker sink his teeth into her shoulder. It overpowers her further, pinning her to the ground as it starts feasting on her.

"ALYSSA! NO!" Sierra cries out at her daughter getting torn to shreds as the rest of us watch in shock. She runs out, her rifle in hand as she starts shooting erratically. One shot connects with the walker's skull, but the damage has been done. Alyssa lays there, her insides spilling out from where the walker had feasted. Angie runs out to her girlfriend, who refuses to leave her daughter.

"Shit…" Benji raises his crossbow, and further away, there they are. A couple dozen walkers, all drawn to the commotion. Without warning, one of the walkers pounces, grabbing Sierra by her hair. She barely even reacts, too distraught from Alyssa, as said walker bites a chunk from her neck, and her blood spurts out all over her clothes and the ground.

"Mom! No!" Jackson cries out as he pulls out his knife, running out toward the scene before either of us can stop him. He and Angie both put up a strong fight, but they're soon surrounded, and the sounds of their efforts are drowned out by the walkers engulfing them. My brother and I just stand there, stunned.

"They're… They're…" He stammers. "They're gone…"

I stare with him, and some walkers soon take notice, slowly stumbling at us. My legs freeze up, and I'm forced to stare at the incoming onslaught. I glance to Benji, who can't help but do the same. My feet start to drag in the dirt as I finally snap back to my senses.

"Come on. Come on, we gotta go!" I hiss to Benji as more and more walkers start approaching. I grab our bags, placing Benji's in his hand as he still stands there. "BENJI!"

Benji snaps out of it, and with a quick pull from me, he and I run as our camp slowly gets overrun with walkers. He and I can't even look back.

Just. Keep. Running.

* * *

I stir awake as my dream is interrupted by some light knocking. I glance around the room as the knocking comes again. I roll out of bed and open the door to see Clem and AJ in the darkness.

"You ready?" She asks. "It's time."

"Yeah," I nod. "Let's do this."

**Happy Friday everyone. This chapter took a very long time to write, being the longest chapter I've written for any of my stories I think. But, next chapter might be the most exciting in the entire story, so look forward to that next week. See you then :]**


	10. Defiance

**Chapter 10 - Defiance**

A single gunshot from the Delta ship drops a walker in front of us, and Clem drags it into the tall grass. She dusts herself off, and ruby gives a groan of disgust at the thought of what some of us are about to do.

"Only the team that's blending in with the walkers needs to cover themselves." Clem reminds us. That team is her, AJ, and Louis, AJ and Clem having done this before, covering themselves in walker guts to blend in with the other walkers. It's disgusting, and I'm glad I'm doing overwatch, but someone needed to go with them, and Louis drew the short stick, so here we are.

"So, no we just need your walker friend to show up, right?" Ruby asks.

Before Clem can answer, AJ turns around and beams. "He's here!"

I turn in the direction he's facing, and I'm met face to face with a walker. Well, not really.

It's Clem's friend, James. The one that wears walker skin. Even despite this, I still step back a bit, taken aback by the sight of him. Something about wearing walker skin leaves me… unsettled.

"Uh… hello…" He whispers to the rest of us, and I can already tell he doesn't feel comfortable here.

"This is James, guys." Clem introduces him to the rest of us, and we warmly smile back.

"He's my friend." AJ adds, which gets a bit of a smile out of James, too.

"He's, uh…" Tenn stammers, unsure how to feel about him. Willy, however, has a different reaction.

"So. Cool! How do you get the skin like that? Can I try it on?" Willy bombards James with questions, and he's clearly uncomfortable now.

"Willy, calm down." Clem tells the boy. "Someone might hear you."

"Sorry, I'll be quiet." The boy concedes.

"Clementine," James turns to her. "May I speak with you alone? For a moment?"

She and him walk off into the woods, probably to discuss strategy, and Louis taps Tenn's shoulder, a sad look on his face. He and Tenn walk away, as well, and I know exactly why. He's breaking the news about his sisters. Sophie's dead, and Minnie's… an enemy. Poor kid.

"How're you feeling?" Ruby asks me, and all I can do is shrug.

"I'm nervous as Hell," I confess to her, "But we can do this. We've got a plan, and if James' walkers show up, we should be good to go."

As if on cue, the raspy groaning starts to come in within earshot. A lot of them, too. Looks like James came through.

"Speak of the Devil." Reby remarks, and Willy and I smile. It's time. Clem walks back to us, a determined look on her face as James walks off toward the impeding herd. Louis and Tenn soon join as we huddle up.

"He's ready to go." Clem announces to the rest of us. "The walkers are getting close. Ruby, you're in charge of the horses. Willy and Tenn, you take care of the supplies." She reminds them of their duties, each giving a confirming nod back.

"And I'm in charge of the bomb." Louis adds, pulling out Willy's creation. Packed with propane and fertilizer, this is gonna be one big fucking boom, if it works.

"Find the boiler. There'll be a door on the bottom with ash and stuff. Put it there." He reminds him. Louis nods, as Clem turns to me.

"Brett, you're on overwatch. Make sure you've got a spot where you can see them, but they can't see you. Don't shoot unless you have to. If we have to go loud, it'll be up to you to cover us until we get inside."

"Roger that." I give her a thumbs up.

"Alright, guys. See you on the other side." She says to the others, as they all disperse to their respective positions. All except Tenn, who sticks behind, solemness on his face, Louis' talk with him must've absolutely killed him.

The boy, frown on his face, walks over to Clem. "Louis… he told me… about Minnie. Sophie's dead, and Minnie's one of them now. Just, um, if you see her out there, tell her I forgive her. I'd tell her myself but… I just wanna see her safe."

"Yeah, sure." Clem smiles to him. "If I see her, I'll tell her."

"Thanks." The boy lightly smiles, before walking off to join Willy.

"That boy has seen Hell." I mutter next to Clementine. "Twelve years old, and he's had to go through so much shit. Poor kid. I hope things get better."

"I know." She responds. "I feel really bad. But you saw what Minnie was like back there. She's been fully immersed with these people. I just hope the others haven't gotten to that point yet."

"That's why we're doing this, right? We get our people back before Lilly corrupts them. So we can see Benji, Omar, Aasim, and Violet again, hopefully not as raiders. Benji's a strong-willed guy and all, but with how vicious Lilly is, I'm not so sure how well the others are holding up there."

"I guess we'll have to find out. But, hey, it's been a couple of days. Maybe it hasn't gotten to that point yet. We just have to find out."

Louis joins us, and the nerves start to get to him. He fiddles with his hands, making the occasional soft groaning noise. "Fuck… we're really doing this, aren't we? Shit..."

"Easy, Louis. We're doing this." I assure him. "Everything's gonna be fine."

"But what if it isn't?" He asks back, with legitimate concern. "What if I fuck this up? You all know I fuck up A LOT. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if ."

"Would you rather fuck up trying to do the right thing? Or live with not even trying at all, and let our friends turn into Minnie?" Clem asks him. He looks down at the ground, taking a deep breath before looking back up at us, a more determined expression on his face as he nods back at us. "That's what I thought. Snap out of it. We've got a boat to catch."

AJ take out his knife, cutting open the walker corpse Clem grabbed earlier. And Louis once again changes expression, this time to pure disgust. "So you weren't joking when you said we had to do this, were you?"

"Nope!" She responds with a smile, grabbing a handful of guts and coating herself. AJ giggles at her upbeat response as he does the same.

"Oh, God." He groans out, and I can't help but giggle myself.

"It's a shame. That's a real nice coat, too." I laugh to him, and he simply glares at me.

"If you care so much about the wellbeing of my coat, you're more than welcome to switch spots with me." He offers, but I simply grin and shake my head.

"Nah, that's all you, buddy. Until you can handle the kick of the 700, I'll have overwatch duty."

He rolls his eyes as the three of them start coating themselves in guts, much to Louis' chagrin. I wish them good luck as I walk off to find an area I can snipe from, away from the walker herd, but still clear enough to see the ship and its crew. A patch of tall grass, within view of the river and the horses, pops out to me in the darkness, so I set up shop, laying down and getting a good view, just as the three of them slowly creep into the herd.

The Delta use a spotlight to spot the walkers, and then sharpshooters shoot them down, pretty simple and easy. Clem leads the way, using the walkers as meat shields, being sure to avoid the sharpshooters when the spotlight gets on her. Soon enough, the three of them get through, taking cover behind some wooden crates, and all attention shifts to a bright flame to my left, the hay that ruby set ablaze. The horses start getting antsy from their pen as troops start walking out from the dock, to kill off walkers and deal with the fire. One of them turns towards me, and I immediately freeze, thinking I'm seen. Fortunately, he looks past me, toward the river, where Willy floats downstream on the raft. With the troops preoccupied on the walkers, fire, and supplies, Clem, AJ, and Louis use this as a chance to sneak down the pier to the ship.

The same troop that noticed Willy and the supplies starts walking towards the river, and also me. I place my rifle on its side and stand still, watching him slowly walk past me and towards the river. His own rifle raised, and ready to open fire on Willy, I pull out my knife, ready to ambush him. As he reaches the dock, about to fire on Willy, I make my move, slowly creeping out from the grass, knife in hand. He doesn't see or hear me coming. My left hand covers his mouth, my right hand dragging my knife across his throat, and the man, muffled by my mouth, chokes on his own blood, quickly bleeding out. I drag his body out of sight from the spotlight, popping him up behind a tree before sticking my blade through his skull to make sure he doesn't come back.

As I quickly get back in my hiding spot, something, or someone, rather, comes into view, and I simply groan.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Tenn…" I mutter as I see the boy running toward the pier, away from several walkers. I run out from my spot, right to him, and I grab him, just as I'm engulfed in the bright spotlight. "Damn it…" I curse to myself. "What the fuck happened, Tenn?"

"Willy and I got separated. I'm sorry, Brett." He solemnly admits, and I try to console him.

"It's ok, buddy. You were scared. Don't-"

I'm cut off by automatic rounds being sprayed right at us. Or rather, not directly at us, but at the walkers that were getting dangerously close. As the gunfire stops, and the walkers drop, the pitter-patter of footsteps quickly approach, and soon Tenn and I are met with several Delta troops.

One of them, a tall woman with short, blonde hair walks right up to me, kicking me in the knee, forcing me to the ground. She kicks my rifle to the side, soon doing the same with my handgun and knife. As I look up at her with a defiant glare, all she does is sneer at me, dropping a land of spit on my forehead.

And then, darkness.

* * *

_**Benji's POV**_

I wake up to the sounds of automatic gunfire from the top deck. Lots of it. As I step over to the door, looking out the grate at Aasim, who looks back at me.

"What the Hell's going on?" I ask him groggily.

"I don't really know." He tells me. "I've heard something about walkers, so I guess there's that."

"Seems like a lot of commotion for some walkers, don't you think?" I ask, curiously. He simply shrugs back as Minerva and Dorian, one of the Delta troops, the tall black woman, walk past the cells.

"You need to focus, Minerva." Dorian scolds the girl, who timidly looks up at the woman, not looking like the girl that threatened me the other day.

"Yes, ma'am." She whispers as she walks back toward the cells, her voice breaking. "I… I have a little brother. Short, scarred face. Is he… he's not out there, is he?"

"We've discussed this," Dorian scolds her. "The Delta is your family now. There ain't no room for anyone else."

"Yes, ma'am." Minerva solemnly responds, and I feel a small frown forming on her face. I kinda feel bad for her. She clearly still loves Tenn, and even if I'm supposed to hate the Delta, maybe they're not all bad people, after all. There's a strange silence after Dorian walks away, and Minnie stands by the cells, refusing to say a word.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see some movement in the shadows. A couple of figures, slowly moving around, keeping quiet. One of these figures slowly rises out of the darkness, pointing her drawn bow right at Minerva, who raises her crossbow in retaliation.

Clem.

"Get out." Minerva growls to Clem.

"Not without our people." Clem fires back as AJ and Louis emerge from the shadows, AJ pointing his revolver at Minerva, as well.

"I swear to God, if you got Tenn caught up in this…" She glares back at Clem, but her voice breaks again. "Just… please tell me he's safe."

"He told me to tell you he forgives you." Clem confides in her, and I can hear Minerva's demeanor completely change.

"Shit…" She mutters. "I'll help you get everyone out. Then you take my brother, and run. Get him back to where it's safe."

"Clem?" I hear Omar ask from the next cell as Clem walks over to them. "Holy fuck."

"Oh my god. Are you guys okay?" She asks them, especially Omar, still nursing the gunshot wound.

"I'm fine." He assures her. "Get Violet. She needs to know you're here."

"I'll unlock the other cell." Minerva tells her, already unlocking the latch on Violet's cell, allowing Clem in. "We don't have much time before Dorian comes back."

Clementine cautiously walks in, and Minerva gets to work on unlocking the other cells.

At least, she pretends to.

Instead, she turns around, and from inside the cell, all I can hear is a thumping noise. Louis backs away, raising his hands up in surrender.

"What the fuck, Minnie?"

"Get in the cell, now." She warns him. "I'll kill him, Louis. Don't test me. Drop your weapons, and get in the fucking cell!"

Keeping the bow pointed at Louis and AJ, she strolls over to my cell, unlocking it, and opening the door. "Don't you dare get any ideas." She warns me as she ushers Louis and AJ in, slamming the door behind them, leaving the three of us in here, with nothing at all.

"Damn it!" Louis yells as he slams his fist into the wall. "GOD DAMN IT!"

"What the fuck is happening?" I hiss to him. "Why are you here?"

"Why do you think?" He asks me, rhetorically. "We were gonna break you out. Shit, this is really bad. Really fucking bad."

"Where's Brett?" I ask him. "He can still get us out."

"I don't know." He responds. "He was doing overwatch, so he's probably still out there. But we have bigger issues."

"Like what?" I eye him, curious and concerned.

"Willy made a bomb, and it's set to go off when the boiler starts going. That bomb is gonna destroy the ship, and us, too, if we don't get the fuck off it."

"Shit…" I mutter. "Well, unless you guys can think of anything. We're fucked."

"Violet? What happened? Are you okay?" We hear Clem's voice from Violet's cell. Sounds like she woke up. But Violet doesn't seem to be in a talking mood. "Violet, talk to me. We're here to take you home."

"I looked for you! When they grabbed me, I saw… you let them take me. I'm just supposed to forget that now that you're here now? Some fucking friend you are." She snaps back.

"Vi, what the Hell's wrong with you? Come on, let's get out of here."

"No, Clem. I'm done. This whole situation is so fucked. At least here I have Minnie."

"You mean the Minnie that betrayed us?"

"Don't act like you know her. She tried to escape, her and Sophie. They said if I'd fight back they'd kill Minnie, or one of you. All you've done is get us hurt or killed. If you fuck this up worse… I'll stop you myself."

Violet's words shock me. I know she held a grudge against Clem, and maybe she had a valid reason to. But this, she sounds like one of them. She's barely said anything at all since we were captured, but is this it? Violet's throwing in the towel, just like that?

"Violet, they're just trying to scare you!" Clem pleads to her, "I'm afraid, too, but we can't let them get into our heads."

"I'm not afraid, I'm realistic." Violet snarls back. "Whatever you do, leave me out of it."

Clem sighs, and I finally get to see her as she walks up to her cell door, right across from mine.

"Hey. Are you alright?" I ask her.

"I'm fine." She responds. "Where's AJ?"

"Over here!" He calls out to her from next to me, poking his face through a hole in the sheet metal that covers part of the door.

"Thank God," She sighs in relief. "How are you guys holding up?"

"We're alright. We've got some time to get out of here, I guess. We're not moving yet, at least." Louis remarks, glancing around. Clem does a little fidgeting with the sheet metal, noticing hers is a little flimsy.

A light bulb turns on in Clem's head as she turns back to AJ. "AJ, do you still have your knife?"

AJ fiddles with his pockets, before pulling out a sharp, wooden tool. "Yeah, I've got the small one. I had to drop the big one."

"Good, can you slide it over to me?"

The boy nods, sliding his makeshift weapon across the smooth wood floor. It slides under the gap in Clem's door, and seconds later, we hear a light tapping noise as she chips away at the metal.

Dorian storms toward the door, slamming on it, and surprising Clem. "HEY!"

Clem stands up, looking up at Dorian's vicious glare. "Whatever you're doin', don't. I promise you, it ain't worth it." Dorian warns her as we hear another voice. The same one we've gotten uncomfortably used to these last couple of days.

"She awake?" Lilly asks as she approaches Clem's door, turning to Clem's door with a smirk on her face. "Good. I'll take it from here."

Out of pure instinct, I feel myself stepping away from the door, avoiding Lilly's gaze, while still looking out to see what's going on.

"Where's Abel?" Lilly asks Clem in a nasty tone.

"He's dead." AJ quips her. "He turned into a walker and then Brett shot him in the head."

"Fuck, you little monsters." She slowly walks to our cell, slamming on the door. "Damn it!"

With a quick hiss, she pulls out a handgun, an M1911, and turns back toward Clementine. "Back up." She orders.

Clem complies, stepping back to the wall, and Lilly continues. "Open the door." She

orders to Minerva who, of course, does as she is told. The door slowly creaks open, and Lilly walks in, gun still pointed at Clem.

"Normally, the trouble you've caused, I'd shoot you and toss you overboard. But, I'm genuinely impressed. First, you organize these idiot kids into a fighting force, and kill several of my most experienced soldiers. Then, you sneak onto my boat under the cover of a herd? I bring a prize like you back to the Delta, it might make this whole clusterfuck of a mission worth it. Someone like you, so young with so much potential, you're far too valuable to kill."

"Look, if I'm the one you want, let the others go." She volunteers. Lilly chuckles, but shakes her head.

"No, this isn't a negotiation. This is me telling you how things are going to be." She walks into the cell, closely followed by Minerva as she continues. "My father, Larry, was a military man, and when I was a kid, he had all sorts of rules. The thing that bugged him the most was waste. If I ever left a light on after leaving a room, he'd flip. No matter how many times he ranted about the cost of electricity, I could never remember to hit that switch. So one day, he let our power get cut. He liked to use… illustrations. To show that actions have consequences. No more TV, no more hair dryer no more ice cream sandwiches. Just a miserable family, sitting in the dark."

"Well, I guess asshole runs in the family. Is that the consequence, that you're an asshole?" Clem fires back, and I can't help but snicker rather loudly. Dorian walks up to my cell, a look on her face that would kill, if it could. Cheekily, I flip her off, as Lilly gets back to her story.

"The consequence is, I never left a light on after that. My father had his faults, but he taught me the effectiveness of teaching by example."

"Oh, is that what this is? A lesson?" Clem glares back at her.

"Let me tell you another story, one you might relate to a little better." Lilly begins again. "Let's call it the parable of the twins. Two girls were taken from their home, and brought to a new place to live. They had to leave their friends and family behind, and that was hard at first. They shed a lot of tears. But the new place was a good place. The people there grew corn and raised pigs, and the twins ate well for the first time in years. They had hot showers, clean clothes, beds. They were given guns and trained to use them. The people there were kind to these girls. All they asked in return was that they helped defend the group. You see, this place had a lot of enemies, killers and thieves, who wanted what they had."

I see where Lilly is taking this story, and it's painfully ironic. THEY'RE killers and thieves.

"They needed help fighting, or they'd lose everything they'd built. Their crops, their power, even their lives. One of the girls saw that this was a place worth fighting for, and her tears dried. But the other twin, she could never forget her old home. She rejected every gift, every opportunity. She stirred up trouble every chance she got. She convinced her sister to steal a raft and leave on the river. Of course, they didn't get far. What happened then, Minerva?"

All sights turn to Minerva who, shaking and quavering, immediately snaps back to her cold, ruthless expression. She says three words, clear as day.

"I killed her."

Louis' jaw drops as he looks to the ground in pure shock. "What the fuck, Minnie?"

Some commotion from Omar and Aasim is immediately quieted by Lilly getting back into the conversation. "You're own sister? Why would you do that?"

"She was twisting my head with her lies."

"And?"

"I made a mistake. I needed to show loyalty to the place I called home."

"Like it or not, you're one of my people now, Clem. The question is, which twin will you be? The loyal one? Or the dead one?"

"You fucking brainwashed her. You people are sick in the head!" I yell out at Lilly. "And you, what kinda person are you?" I target Minerva. "Killing your own family in the name of blind loyalty? You're no better than any of these sick fucks!"

"Y'all better back away from the door!" Dorian warns me again, to which I look back at her, dead in the eyes, but I don't say a word, nor do I move a muscle.

"I'll be the one that cuts your throat while you sleep." Clem growls back to her, which only seems to amuse her.

"That's kinda what I expected you to say. No matter, you'll soon find out I'm not playing around. Pull the mouthy one out of the cell."

Dorian opens the door, and Lilly adds some more. "They clearly didn't get the moral of the story. We'll have to help them understand."

Dorian walks up to me, pulling out a butcher knife. I gulp as I accept the inevitable, and AJ steps in between us.

"Stop. Don't hurt Benji. Or I'll hurt you." The boy says menacingly.

"Ey, yo. You better cool it, before you get yourself hurt." She threatens back to the boy, shoving past him and grabbing me by the collar. She throws me to the ground with ease, grabbing my hand as she tries to keep me still. "Stay still. Don't make this any worse than it needs to be."

My breathing quickens as I try to wiggle free, but I can't do very much. She has me pinned under her. "That's it, just breathe."

I close my eyes, ready to lose a finger or a few as my entire body stiffens. My jaw locks up, this is it. Dorian screams out in pain as the pressure on top of me is suddenly lifted. I open my eyes, looking back up to see her throw AJ off her back, towards the wall. As he sits up, he spits something big out of his mouth. A bloody piece of her ear.

Dorian feels her ear, noticing a chunk of it missing, as she kicks AJ back into the wall. "You son of a bitch!"

"That's enough." Lilly states.

"What the- He bit me!" Dorian protests.

"I said, that's enough." She repeats herself, and Dorian stands down. I use this as a chance to crawl back against the wall, my breathing slows down and I calm down, seeing I'm not gonna lose any fingers.

"You deserve to die!" AJ yells out. "We'll kill you!"

Lilly, intrigued by what the boy's saying, walks over to our cell. "You think you can kill me?"

"I know I can!" AJ responds fiercely. "We'll put a knife in the side of your head!"

"Big talk for a little guy." She says back, enjoying this a little too much.

"I know I can do it. I killed Marlon. I'll kill you, too!" He pretends to hold a gun in his hands, pointing it at Lilly's head. "Bang."

She crouches down, in front of AJ and meets his eye level. "So, YOU killed Marlon. Huh. I bet you'd make a great soldier. Clem seems to care a lot about you, doesn't she? Come on, let's go have a chat. Just us."

Before AJ can react, she grabs him by the shirt and drags him out, locking the cell behind her. Minerva does the same with Clem's cell before she can rip the two apart herself, although she puts up a Hell of a fight.

"Get this thing moving. I want to be far away from here, fast." Lilly orders Dorian while dragging AJ away.

"I'll fire up the boiler." Dorian confirms as she walks downstairs.

"Don't you dare look at me that way." Minerva says to Clementine. "This is the only way we survive."

"Are you serious Minnie?" Louis cries out to her. "After everything she's done, you're just gonna help her? Fuck You!"

"Shut up!" She yells back at Louis, as Clem disappears from the cell door once again.

"What the Hell happened to you?" He asks her, sincerely. "You killed Sophie. What the fuck? You just decided, 'Hey I'll work for these people, they seem friendly enough'."

"You wouldn't understand, Louis. We're right. Stop fighting it. Please."

From behind her, Clem and Violet fight, with Clem easily overpowering her. This gets Minerva's attention. Perfect.

"Hey! What're you doing? Stop!" She unlocks the door, trying to break it up. BIG mistake. Just as she opens the door, Clem runs right at it, knocking her backwards, and losing control of her crossbow.

Almost immediately, she grabs the latch to our door, unlocking it, just as Minnie gets up. "Clem, behind you!" Louis warns her, just in time for her to turn around to see Minnie rush her with a knife, knocking her down on her back and sticking a knife to her chest.

"You're the fucking problem here! I won't let you get them all killed!" She yells to Clem, slowly overpowering her.

Louis is the first out of the cell, grabbing the crossbow and pointing it at her. "Minerva, stop!"

She blatantly ignores him, just as we hear Dorian's voice quickly approaching. "What the Hell's going on down-"

She's immediately cut off by the crossbow bolt that Louis fired directly into her mouth. Her eyes roll backwards as she drops down dead, the bolt sticking out of the back of her throat.

This does just enough to distract Minerva, who turns around to see her comrade dead. Louis, in shock that he killed someone, drops the bow, but the damage has been done.

With one punch to the head, Clem manages the get Minerva off her, and another one knocks her out cold. For once, we can finally breathe, even for just a second.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Louis panics, and Violet walks out of the cell, taking in everything that just happened. She crouches next to Minerva, holding her in her arms with a light sob.

"Minerva, we have to go, now." Clem tells her, unlocking Omar and Aasim's door.

"NO!" She protests, still sobbing next to her ex(?)-girlfriend.

Clem sighs in annoyance. "We planted a bomb on the boat. It's gonna go off."

"Fuck you, there's a bomb! Mitch is dead! Just fucking go!"

"Clem, we need to get off the boat. That bomb is gonna go off any minute now."

"Go." She tells me. "I need to find AJ."

"We better see you on dry land." Aasim tells her, and she nods back to him before going to the upper deck.

* * *

_**Brett's POV**_

I come to as I feel myself being dragged along the top deck, a strong breeze blowing in my face as I look up. My hands are binded, likely by the same woman from earlier, the blonde with the short haircut, who drags me along the deck. Tenn, captured with me, is dragged by another man. Finally, we reach the end of the boat, and sitting there, James, his hands also binded, a pissed-off look on his face, which I see for the first time without his mask.

"James…"

"They got me…"

"Don't tell 'em a fuckin' thing." I tell him. "Not a damn thing."

"Quiet!" The woman yells to me, smacking me in the side of the head. "You will tell us whatever we want to know."

"Fuck you. You don't fucking scare me." I spit right at her, the drop landing on her boot, which only pisses her off more. She slaps me in the face again, leaving a stinging sensation on my cheek, but I grin anyways, resisting.

"We're gonna focus that energy. Sharpen it." We hear Lilly's voice approaching. "I've known Clementine since before this all started. She'll come around. You'll come around, too. Once you see what we have to offer."

"Ma'am!" The man dragging Tenn says. "We found a couple more sneaking around the docks."

"Tenn!" AJ calls out, seeing his friend being held hostage.

"Tennessee!" Lilly exclaims, absolutely delighted. "Did you get lost?"

"He wasn't alone, ma'am." The woman adds. "We've got a couple more over there."

"Right this way." Lilly leads the boys over towards us, and she only looks more delighted to see the both of us tied up.

"We found him with the boy." The blonde points to me, and I send a nasty look to both of them. "And we found this in the herd." She nods at James.

"So that's how there were so many walkers." She remarks. "You must've thought you were clever, leading all those walkers here. Or was that Clementine's idea?"

James remains quiet, staring back at Lilly.

"Nothing to say?"

"You don't fucking scare me."

"Is that so?"

"You've already signed your own death warrant." I assure her. "It doesn't matter if it's right now, tomorrow, a day, a year from now. Even if it takes the rest of my life, you're fucking dead."

She smirks as she crouches down, inches from my face. "Just like your brother. Defiant as ever. It's a real shame. You'd have made a Hell of a soldier. Kill them."

"No!" AJ yells out. But just as the blonde raises her rifle, about to shoot James and myself, Tenn makes a quick move, swiping her handgun from its holster, pointing it at her, and then at Lilly.

"Easy, Tenn."

"Don't hurt them." He warns her. "Just… stop hurting people."

"Shoot her, Tenn!" I tell the boy. "Shoot her, and this is over."

"Why don't we all just take a deep breath?" Lilly suggests, slowly moving towards him.

"Give me my friends back!" He yells with conviction, pointing the gun at her. "Let us go, or else."

Lilly stands tall. "Fine, go ahead, do it. Save your friends." She literally puts her head to the barrel of the gun.

"Do it it, Tenn. Fuckin' do it." I mutter. "End this."

"This is what you came here to do, isn't it?"

The pressure of the situation weighing down on him, and he starts shaking. Tears start pouring out of his eyes. He can't do it.

"Oh, I see. You came here to cry." She taunts the boy, snatching the gun out of his hands. "Looks like you're not a soldier, either." She points the gun back at him, just for AJ to intervene the way he does best. He leaps up, grabbing her arm and biting down hard on her hand. The blonde raises her rifle again, about to shoot, but James runs at her landing a big hit with his shoulder. I turn to Lilly, just to see Clementine doing the same, tackling the woman to the ground. I'm forced to watch, hands bound behind my back, as Clem and Lilly both take turns being in control, but Lilly seems to be doing more damage. Lilly knocks the knife out of Clem's hands as she pins her against the rail.

"You've made a big fucking mistake." Lilly growls, pinning Clem down. "Such a fucking waste! OW!"

Lilly howls in pain as AJ plunges the knife into her knee, despite still managing to kick him away with her hurt leg. Clem uses this as a chance to kick the knife, cutting more of Lilly's leg, causing her to drop to the ground, holding her wound, spilling blood.

"Tenn!" I yell to the boy, doing almost nothing. "Try and get my binds loose!"

He nods, running behind me, and fiddling with the rope. After a minute or so, I feel it loosening, and I wiggle one of my hands free, I'm finally able to get up, dust myself off, and I look up to see AJ picking up the handgun that was knocked away during the fight.

Lilly, seeing herself in a no-win situation, concedes, kneeling, keeping her hands up, surrendered. "AJ, wait! I give up. I will give up. Put down the gun, I will let everyone leave. My crew and I will leave. We won't bother you anymore." She pleads to the boy with some very uncharacteristic desperation.

James wrestles the rifle away from the blonde, tossing it to the side as he turns to see AJ, refusing to back down. That glare in his eyes, the animosity tells me all I need to know. He wants to kill her.

But James tries to reason with the boy. "AJ! She's not a threat anymore. Lower the gun."

"You weren't down there. You didn't see what she did." AJ snaps back at him, "She tried to cut us all up!"

Clem staggers to her feet as Lilly continues to beg for her life. "You don't have to do this, please! Don't you fucking dare, AJ!"

That last line, almost sounding like a threat, leads me to a different conclusion, so I try to convince AJ to do the one thing he shouldn't have to do.

"Waste the bitch! We can't let her hurt anyone anymore, AJ! Do it!" I tell him, and James stares back at me, a grimace on his face, and a look in his eyes that tells me to shut up.

"I don't wanna die!" Lilly cries out at him.

"Lower the gun, AJ." Clem sighs.

The boy hesitates for a moment, glancing at Clem, then to me, then to James, and then back at Clem, before sighing himself, lowering the gun.

James, relieved that the boy won't kill, walks toward AJ to take the gun from him.

It all feels so fast from there, though. In one motion, Lilly slides the knife from her wound, and before I react, sticks it in James' back.

"James!" Clem and I both cry out at him, now laying on the ground with blood seeping from his back at he tries to cling onto life, but to no avail.

With a wicked smirk on her face, Lilly steps over to the clattered handgun, picking it up, and pointing it at me.

But then, a rumble, and the boat slightly lurches. Clem and I look at each other as the boat rumbles again. All eyes go upward, toward a smokestack shaking violently and billowing out smoke.

Shit. The bomb. They must've activated the boiler.

"Oh shit." I whisper, just before a violent blast sends us all flying backwards.

**Happy Friday everyone. 10 Weeks, 10 Chapters. Had a lot of fun writing this one, but unfortunately this story is winding down, believe it or not. I'd say there's Chapters at most, but I do have an idea for a third story in the works, based in the same universe and combining aspects of my first two stories. Anyways, hope you all enjoyed. Would appreciate some constructive reviews to hear what you think. See you next week :]**


	11. Never Mind the Darkness

**Chapter 11 - Never Mind the Darkness**

My body starts to lurch as I finally come to. I open my eyes to the sight of a towering inferno and smoke, lots of it. With a cough, I slowly get to my feet, taking a moment to look at the damage around me.

Willy wasn't kidding. This bomb packed a serious punch. The boat, up in flames, slowly sinks into the water. I try and stumble to the side of the boat, towards the pier, and I look out at what's going on.

The only ones I can see are Clem and AJ, looking down the river from the pier. Lilly, who also survived, paddles away on a raft, looking back at Clem, and I can only imagine what they're saying to each other right now. The boat lurches once again, and it starts tilting towards the pier. I look for an escape, only seeing one option in this dire situation.

I have to jump for it.

With the boat continuing to tilt more and more forward, I try my best to get towards the front of the boat, where I can dive into the water, hopefully where it's deep enough.

I find the spot, what looks to be a deeper area. With any luck, I can just jump in, swim ashore, and find everyone else. If I'm not lucky, well, I don't think I need to describe what can go wrong. Nevertheless, I walk toward the railing, now almost parallel to the ground. It's now or never.

With a deep breath, I approach the railing, standing on it, and my stomach churns as I look down. I get that familiar feeling in my legs where my mind wants to go, but my body freezes. That drop, one thing goes wrong, I break my legs, I drown. But if I stay here, I die in the boat crash. I've gotta risk it.

"Come on, Brett. You got this. Do it. Do it." I whisper to myself, trying to hype myself up. The boat rumbles again as I feel a slight drop. "Fuck." Fuck it. I take the leap of faith.

Thankfully, the water is easily deep enough for me, as I splash into the river, swimming toward the shore as I'm not noticed by any of the walkers on the pier or the shoreline. I crouch behind some foliage, a massive crashing noise comes from where I just was. The boat crashes into the pier, turning the pier and ship into a massive flaming mess. If I hesitated another second, I might not have made it here unscathed. I fish my Brewers cap out of the water, soaked like the rest of me, and I keep moving forward.

Gunshots start coming from further down the shore, and the last remaining Delta troops try to hold them off, attracting the attention of any walker in the area. I creep behind a crate on the shore, and there they are. Clem, AJ, Louis, Violet, Aasim, Omar, and...

Benji. I grin. He made it out. Thank God.

While everyone else is preoccupied with the Delta and the Raiders. I slowly creep over toward the others, keeping an eye on everything that's going on. Finally, I duck down behind cover next to Benji. "Howdy folks." I say with a confident grin.

"Brett!" AJ exclaims as he runs over to hug me. "You made it!"

"Damn right I did, little buddy. Did you think I was just gonna leave you like that?"

My brother pulls me in for an extremely tight hug. "When I heard you were out there, I wasn't sure what to think. What the hell happened?"

"I saw Tenn out in the middle of the crossfire, I had to defend him." I explain to him. "Long story short, we were surrounded by Delta, interrogated by Lilly, boat go boom."

He nods as our attention goes back out toward the Delta troops fighting for their lives. Clem turns to the right, pointing out into the darkness. There they are, Willy and Ruby, with one of the carts they took us away in, and one of the horses, too.

Willy notices us, waving over. "Come on! Let's get out of here!"

The blonde, noticing Willy, starts taking shots at the boy with her rifle. He ducks behind the cart as she shoots a few more shots.

Clem gets out from cover, raising the bow she got back and firing a single shot, right into the blonde's neck. The other Delta troop, taking note of this, pulls out her sidearm, walking towards us and shooting once again. We duck behind cover, only to hear her scream out in pain.

We peek back out, and she's pounced on by three of four walkers, all chomping on various limbs as she also drops to the ground, her handgun dropping in the sand next to her.

All that remains is Minnie, looking completely dumbfounded at the sight before her. She picks up the blonde's rifle, using the last of its ammo to hold them off, before dumping said rifle and using the same axe I saw her using when we first met.

"The Hell is she doing? She's gonna get herself killed." Violet angrily and desperately remarks about her ex(?)-girlfriend, swing her axe and actually doing a pretty effective job at killing.

Although, it's not enough. As she tries to dig the axe out of one walker's skull, another grabs her by the arm, and sinks his teeth into it. As if nothing even happened, she pulls her arm away, kneeing it in the head, and swinging the axe into its brain as it drops to the ground.

"Oh, my god." Omar whimpers at the sight of her, going back to killing as if she wasn't bitten at all.

"Make a break for it, now." Clem orders us. And we all agree, and we watch on as Minnie takes on as many as she can, even though she's done. In the sand, I see the woman's handgun sitting there, by a couple walkers feasting on her remains. But, a smart and kinda reckless idea crosses my mind. I break away from the group, running towards the walkers feasting. I snag the handgun and kick one of the walkers away as the others take notice. Before they can do anything, arrows fly in, and both of them drop as I stomp on the third one's skull. I turn back to Clem, giving her a gracious nod as gunshots turn my attention back towards Minnie.

She's completely surrounded, but she's fighting to the bitter end, popping shots until she's overwhelmed. One walker, as she's popping shots in front, sneaks up behind her, grabbing her head and tearing a chunk out of her cheek. Without a second of hesitation, she points her handgun right at it, and fires a round right next to her head, dropping the walker.

She turns to us, a nasty chunk missing from her cheek and I run back behind cover.

"CLEMENTINE!" She yells out at her. "Fuck you!"

As I try to peek out at what's going on, Benji immediately drags me back down behind the cover, and a few moments later, a smaller explosion. The horse cries out in surprise, and the cart drives away, leaving me, Benji, Clem, and AJ behind.

"What happened?" I cough to my brother as I stand back up.

"She threw a fucking grenade. Can you believe that? A damn grenade." He spits as we all look at Minnie who, while swinging the axe, is able to run away from the situation, and most of the walkers follow.

"We don't have time for this." Clem scolds us. "Let's go."

She leads us through the walkers that remain, dodging and weaving through their outstretched arms as we avoid getting eaten alive. Further down, by the rocks, Tenn crouches behind them, waving to us. As we pass by the last few walkers, we leap behind the rocks, getting to breathe for a moment.

I'm ambushed by a pair of hands grabbing me, and I quickly turn as a walker tries to pounce on me. Holding him back as hard as I can, I can't reach for a weapon. Suddenly, the attack stops, as it immediately collapses on me.

I shove the corpse to the ground, and Tenn retrieves his knife. He and I both nod to each other as I cheat death again for the eight thousandth time tonight, it feels like. The five of us run off into the woods, the walkers still pursuing us. After a few minutes of running, we find a cave entrance, not very wide, but we can squeeze through it.

"We have to go through here." Clem tells us as she goes in first.

"But, we don't know where it goes." Tenn protests.

"Well, we know there's walkers in the opposite direction. If you want to go that way, be my guest." She coldly responds to the boy, continuing into the cave as the rest of us follow.

"But-"

"Move it, dummy!" AJ yells to his friend as Tenn finally decides to follow us, not wanting to get torn to shreds.

"Damn it, it's so dark in here." Clem remarks as the five of us regroup in the cave. She tears a piece of cloth from a dead walker lying on the floor, tying it onto a stick as she tries to light it on fire and make a torch. After a few sparks, the cloth lights, and we have some light.

"So, there's another tunnel over there." She points, just beyond a small river that's flowing way too fast for us to swim across. It's too far to jump across. Well, shit.

"Those walkers are getting closer, too." Benji warns us, and we turn to see that they're almost getting through the tight entrance. If they knew how to form single-file lines, we'd be dead.

"Brett, help me with this?" Clem calls over to me, pushing on a log propped against the cave wall. I join her, putting my whole effort into pushing it, and it finally dislodges, landing in the river, and catching itself on some rocks, forming a makeshift bridge across the river.

Tenn cries out as we get the bridge made, as a walker grabs him. But this isn't any walker. It's James, this time actually a walker, not in walker skin. Benji wrestles him away, and the two of them head for the bridgeu, but AJ stays there, awestruck at the sight of James.

"Look at his eyes." I hear him remark, walking closer to look at him.

Before walker James can do anything, Clem spartan kicks the walker away and pulls AJ with her as the two of them join Tenn and my brother on the other side. Once the bridge is clear, I slowly shuffle across, leaping to the other side as a couple of walkers knock the bridge out, sending them and the log down the rapid, down a waterfall.

We look back at the walkers, a couple dozen or so now crowding the other riverbed, James included. Poor guy, I barely got to even know him. He didn't have to get caught up in all this, but he decided to help anyways. And he died because of it.

But still, if AJ had shot Lilly, he'd still be alive, Lilly wouldn't be a problem, and maybe things would be different.

But maybe James was concerned for AJ. AJ is a ruthless kid. I know he's only five, but he's already killed a man in cold blood. Killing someone like that, at that age, it messes you up, and maybe James was worried about that.

As we reach another chamber of the cave, we find that this room has several different exits.

"Alright, which way do we go? Tenn, do you see a light down any of these tunnels?" Clem asks him, but he doesn't respond. Instead, he just stares. He stares at AJ, looking down one of the tunnels, almost living in his own little world.

"AJ, you still with me?" She asks him, slowly approaching him. He doesn't respond, still staring down the tunnel. "AJ, come on." She nudges the boy. "We need to keep moving."

"There's… There's nothing after this." He stammers out. Clem looks at him, confused, but he continues. "James isn't in there. He looked right at me and… and his eyes were empty. There's nothing after we die. Nothing but empty eyes."

Clem looks at her boy, absolutely stunned at what he says, and he angrily snaps at her. "I wish you would tell me the truth". Still with nothing to say, she puts a hand on AJ for support, but he angrily nudges it off and shoves her down. "Why did you make me make my friend go away? Everything is all wrong now. Like something spilled on the floor, and you just can't get it back. Because you didn't let me shoot her."

"James' death is not on you." She assures him. "I made the call, and Lilly is the one who stabbed him. He shouldn't have been there, AJ. None of this was supposed to happen."

"What? I… I can't hold all of this in my head!" He complains.

"It's ok to be confused."

He shakes his head at her comforting remarks, walking back over to her. "You always say don't be soft, but everything you do just messes up my head. Be strong! Be brave! Never hesitate to kill people that want to hurt us!"

"AJ, you're five. This world isn't supposed to make sense. Hell, I'm nineteen and this barely makes any sense to me. Life is not about absolutes. It takes context to know when some things are good, and some things aren't." I try to explain to him, but that only pisses him off more.

"What do you mean? You wanted me to kill her! You said it yourself!"

"I know. I did." I sigh. "But, I also see why James and Clem didn't want you to. You're five, you don't need to be doing that when you're that young."

"What about Marlon? You said you would've killed him yourself, so why is it so bad that I did it?"

"Marlon murdered my girlfriend. I had a reason to want him dead. He made it personal with me. He hadn't with you. When you killed him, you had no reason to. I did. That's why it was bad when you did it. I'm not saying it would've been good if I did it, but you doing it was a whole lot worse for a number of reasons."

"But you said-"

"AJ, please! That's enough." Clem pleads to him, with a hint of desperation and tears, the first I've ever seen from her. After everything she's been through, I wasn't sure if she had any left in her.

"I'm sorry." He concedes, "I'm just scared something will take you away. Aren't you scared of that, too? Having to leave the world behind."

"Listen, kiddo, everyone is scared of dying. Of what happens after. Especially if it's nothing."

Aj frowns, walking over to one of the walls in the cave. "I don't want people I care about to leave, Clem. I have to kill anyone that tries to take them away. I do. You told me I was wrong to kill Marlon, but I think you were confused. It was murder, but I was still right. I don't think murder means the same thing as it did when you were little." He tells her, looking into the fire. "That world's gone now. I think murder now is just... protecting the people around you."

"Enough, AJ." She scolds the boy. "Murder is murder, nothing else. A human life is precious."

The boy angrily shakes his head once again. "No. Food is precious. Bullets are precious. We need those to live. But we don't need bad people who make things wrong."

"You're too young to understand." She softly responds. "You're just a child."

"So are you." He scowls at her. "I know you want to be big for everyone, but you're just a kid, like me. Sometimes, you're scared, just like any other kid. So, I'll help. You said all the policemen and firefighters died. So, I'm gonna be a new one. Even if I don't get it just right, I am. Because all it means is killing bad people who hurt other people. And I'm good at that." That last part, he says with a malicious smile. I glance at my brother, who has a similar concerned expression on his face, and I mouth the phrase "What the fuck" to him. He just blinks twice and slowly shakes his head.

"AJ, that's not the future I want for you. I love you too much, and I see you slipping away. Getting more violent, more angry, more lost." Clem confides in AJ.

"You shouldn't be afraid of that." AJ tells her. "I won't let it happen. I need you to trust me, Clem. That I can tell the good people and the bad people apart. That I know when to use my gun. And that you'll let me decide on my own."

She sigh. "Okay."

His face lights up. "Really?"

"You're growing up too fast, AJ, and that scares me. But, you've seen things and done things that no one your age should have to do. You've earned my trust. If you say you won't ever enjoy killing, I believe you."

"I won't, I promise."

A strong breeze starts pouring in from one of the tunnels, and Benji turns towards the source. "Feel that?"

"That's the way out." Clem confirms as she grabs her torch. Raspy groans come from the tunnel we came in from. Somehow, the walkers made it across the river. But, I don't wanna sit around wondering that.

"Let's book it. We've got company." I mutter as the five of us start running down the tunnel.

Cool, refreshing air hits all of us as we finally get out of the cave, a nice early morning breeze flows through the trees as Clem extinguishes her torch. We keep walking down the dusty path, which should lead us close to the school, according to Clem.

As we make our way back down the trail, Clem hears a noise, some rustling from behind a tree. We all stop dead in our tracks as she pulls out a knife, slowly approaching the source of the noise.

Strolling out from behind the tree is Louis, sporting a cheeky grin as he sees all of us.

AJ is the first to react, running right into his arms.

"You're not dead. That's good." He remarks as we all giggle back.

Not yet at least.

"Did everyone else escape?" Clem asks him.

He nods with a sharp smile. "Damn right. They took that cart and hauled ass back to the school."

"But you came back and looked for us."

"I thought I lost you guys."

"Only for a minute." She warmly smiles to him.

"It's over. The raiders are gone, and we got everyone out of it alive. Almost totally unscathed." I look at him, confused.

"Almost?"

He nods, albeit less cheery. "Violet, she uh, got caught in the blast. Really bad burns on her face. Ruby thinks she's lost vision in one of her eyes entirely. But, her life's not in danger and everyone else is safe, so yeah."

I sigh. "Damn. That's fucked. But at least we're safe. Unless Lilly gets any bright ideas and she brings more raider friends next time. But, I like to think she got the message."

"Well I guess we'll have to see then. But in the meantime, everyone's waiting for us back home."

"Any idea where the fastest way home is?" Clem asks him. He ponders that for a second, looking around the area, the treeline, and such, before pointing out deeper into the woods.

"I haven't been out here in awhile, but I think there's a bridge that way. It should be the fastest way back."

Let's go, then." Benji says. "I am in dire need of a nap."

The rest of us laugh as Louis leads the way. Me, too, Benji. Me, too.

* * *

As the sun barely starts to poke over the horizon, the bridge comes into view. Covered in foliage, it's a miracle it's still standing after seven years with no upkeep. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this thing was completely unstable.

Clem senses some tenseness, especially from Tenn, so she gives us some words of advice. "Just take your time. Keep moving forward."

The six of us start moving forward, and sure enough, it's not entirely stable, but it's good enough to keep us moving. It slowly creaks as our footsteps cross it, leaving a very uneasy feeling in some of us, myself included.

I've never been one for heights or extreme danger. Jumping off the boat was one thing, but that was life or death. If I didn't do that, I was dead regardless. Here, though, one wrong move, and I fall into the river deep below us. I'd be done.

As Clem and the rest of us walk over an old truck blocking the way, we finally approach a gap in the bridge. It's within leaping distance, but one wrong move, you fall to your death.

I look down the gap to see how far it is and all I can do is gulp. It's a long fucking drop, right onto some rocks.

"I think we can jump it." Louis says with more than an ounce of confidence in his voice.

"Yeah, I think we can." Clem agrees, "We just gotta be caref-"

"_Never mind the darkness._" A woman's voice sings from behind us. "_Never mind the storm._"

We all slowly turn around to see who sings the song, and I feel chills run down my spine as she continues.

"_Never mind the blood red moon._"

She finally comes into view. Walker guts all over her, the axe perched up on her shoulder, that bite mark on her cheek more pronounced than before.

Minnie.

"_The night will be over soon._"

"Minnie?" Tenn asks as he sees his sister, slowly walking to her.

"I did it! I found you! Oh Tenn!" She laughs at the sight of her brother, partially in relief, partially in delirium. "My sweet little brother. Come with me."

Behind her, the raspy moans of walkers start to come into earshot. A lot of them, very quickly. A few dozen start to emerge from the woods as Minnie walks closer to us.

"You're dying…" Tenn observes, backing away, which only makes her grin wider.

"Yes! Yes, I am! I'm finally going someplace better. I want you there with me." She tells her brother.

"Where everyone gets to be a person again…" He starts to walk towards her again.

"We're gonna go with Mom and Dad and Sophie. Together." She assures him, the two quickly getting closer and closer. "It won't be real if you're not there."

"Tenn, look at me." Clem reminds him. "I know that looks like her, but your sister is gone."

"I'm-"

Tenn's cut off by a single gunshot, fired straight in the air. Minnie points the gun at each one of us. "Don't you fucking speak to him! Any of you!" She yells to us as more walkers take notice of us.

We all take cover behind the truck, and Louis tries to reason with her. "Minnie, c'mon, stop!"

"He needs to be with his family!" She groans out to us, walking closer and starting to blend in with her mini-herd. "Don't worry, Tenn. They can try and stop me. But I am not going anywhere without you. The night will be over soon."

I check the handgun I swiped off the raider's body, a few bullets remain in the magazine. "I've got six shots. Should I take them?" I ask my brother. He quickly nods back.

I pop out from cover, trying to find her, but just as I see her, I'm met with shots back at me, so I immediately duck back down.

"I'll get the others across the gap. Don't let the walkers get close." Louis tells us. We nod back, Clem and I popping back out to deal with the walkers, and Minnie if we see her. Clem, using her bow, starts shooting shots into the crowd, dropping a few as Minnie starts firing back, forcing us back behind cover. I pop out when she's done shooting, firing two shots into the crowd, neither hitting Minnie but both killing walkers. She shoots again, and I duck back down. Louis crouches back down next to us.

"I got AJ across, but Tenn won't do anything." He tells us, and the three of us turn. Tenn holds his head in his hands as Benji tries to comfort him.

"Keep trying. I've gotta stop Minnie." Clem says as she pokes her head out, only to get a hard kick to the forehead, knocking her back. Minnie leaps down with a roar, swinging her axe and lodging it in the floor as Clem rolls out of the way.

"You are not his family!" She yells to Clem, pointing her gun and pulling the trigger. All that comes is a click. She's out of ammo. As she reloads, Clem springs up from the ground, trying to wrestle the gun from her hands. Clem overpowers her with a headbutt to the nose, and points the gun back at her, ready to execute her.

Minnie spits in her face, blood getting in Clem's eyes as she misses. Minnie jumps back to her feet, running to the axe still lodged in the ground, shoving me aside as I try to get a clean shot on her. My gun clatters to the side as she picks up her axe, walking back over to Clem. With a powerful raise, she swings down.

Benji pushes Clem to the side, and pays the price for it, the axe slicing open his shin as he falls backwards, next to her. He cries out in pain, holding his bloody shin.

"I'm taking Tenn home!" Minnie screams as she grabs her axe once again, ready to finish the job. I stagger back to my feet, and I grab my handgun, evading the few walker hands reach toward me.

Minnie raises her axe once again to my brother, and I finally take the shot. A single round pierces her chest, and she stumbles backwards, out of pure shock. Before she can do anything, walkers grab her by the arms and shoulders, pouncing on her and devouring her alive. I take the commotion as a chance to run toward the gap, leaping to the other side. My gun drops to the ground, right to AJ's feet, and I turn back.

"Guys! Come on!"

Clem and Benji both walk over, Benji stumbling to the ledge. Clem leaps across first, easily makes it across with Minnie's axe in hand. "Come on, Benji!" She urges.

My brother hesitates, but with a hobbling start, he jumps off his good leg, Clem and I catch him as he gets across.

"Tenn! We have to go, now!" Louis yells to Tenn as he holds him back from joining his sister in the walker horde.

"Let him go! You'll die if you don't!" AJ tells Louis as he raises my gun to them. I turn to AJ, a determined look on his face.

"AJ, what're you doing? Don't-"

I'm cut off as AJ squeezes the trigger, firing a round directly into Tenn's neck. Tenn turns back to us, his eyes showing the pain as blood spurts from the holes in his neck. With his final breath, he drops to his knees and falls back as the walkers start to feast on the boy.

Louis, in total shock, screams at Tenn's mauled body, looking back in total shock.

"JUMP FOR IT!" Clem orders him as he snaps to his sense, leaping across the gap to safety with the rest of us, immediately looking back at Tenn, now barely visible as more walkers feast on him and his sister.

"What the fuck?" Louis gasps angrily, catching his breath. "How could you just shoot him like that?"

"I had to!" AJ justifies. "You'd have died if I didn't. I did it for you."

"Tenn's dead! He's DEAD! Do you realize that?" Louis angrily asks him. Before he can answer, he turns AJ to look at the scene. "Look! He's gone, because of you."

"AJ saved your life, Louis. Tenn was gonna get you killed." Clem reminds him.

"So what, we just cut him loose? Gun him down like he was nothing?" He fires back.

"Louis, I think she's right." I tell him. "This is gonna sound super fucked up, but I think AJ made the right call. If it was you or him, I'd have done the same. But Jesus Christ, Tenn…"

"I didn't want to shoot him!" He angrily adds. "He was my first real friend. But, he was messing up again, just like when he got Mitch killed. So I had to decide."

Louis stares on in stunned silence, shaking his head. I turn to my brother, writhing in pain at his split open leg. "Hey, how're you feeling?"

"I've had better days." He groans, pointing outside. "But we need to go, we've got company."

We turn to where he's pointing, walkers slowly stumble towards us, drawn over from the commotion Minnie caused. The road is flooded with them, but some fast thinking from Louis leads us to a metal fence, which he starts scaling instantly.

"Come on. I'll help you down." He tells us with urgency as he drops down on the other side. Clem and AJ start climbing, but with Benji's leg the way it is, I stay back, shaking my head. "What're you doing?" He asks as we start walking in a different direction.

"With Benji's leg the way it is, he wouldn't make it halfway up. We'll find another way, trust me. He's a hard bastard, we'll be fine."

"We better see you back at the school." He tells me as he helps AJ down. Clem yelps as a walker grabs her leg. She desperately tries to kick it off, but he won't let go. I raise the pistol, sights on his skull. I pull the trigger and he finally lets go as he drops dead.

Clem drops on the other side, before tossing the axe back over to me. "You'll need it." She assures me, and I nod. The three of them run down the open road and Benji and I try to find a different way to get back. I lead the way, swinging the axe wildly at any walkers that come near us, decapitating as many as possible.

"There" He points at a ridge that would take some climbing, but would give us space from the walkers.

"Benji, your leg." I remind him, and he groans in protest.

"Damn it, forget my leg. Give me the axe, and I'll hold them off while you climb. Then, pull me up and I'll do what I can to make it easier."

"Fuck." I snap. "Alright. Alright, let's fuckin' do it."

I run toward the ridge, handing him the axe and I start climbing with haste. It's about a ten-foot climb. With extreme haste, I pull myself on top of the ridge, turning back to Benji, who chops through another walker with relative ease.

"Come on!" I call out to him, "Get over here!"

He turns back to me after killing one more walker, quickly hobbling toward the ridge. He tosses the axe to me as he starts climbing. Even with his bad leg, he manages to get a few feet up the ridge as I reach down, trying to pull him up. As he works his way up another foot or so, his hand grabs mine, and I pull with all my strength, but I'm met with a lot more resistance than expected.

A walker grabs Benji by the foot as I try to pull him to safety. Despite my best efforts, the walker holds an ironclad grip on my brother's leg, and I watch in horror as the walker gnaws at my brother's foot, partially exposed from Minerva's axe slicing his jeans and boot open. He screams in pain as I loosen my grip to grab my handgun. With my last bullet, I aim at the walker, and I squeeze. It drops to the ground, and Benji desperately climbs up next to me, the both of us collapse on the ground next to each other as we catch our breath.

He rolls onto his back, looking up at the sky.

"Benji…" I say to my brother, breathing heavily. He doesn't answer, sitting up, a stunned look on his face. "Benji…"

Once again, he doesn't answer. Instead, he rolls up his jeans, pulling aside the split parts of his jeans and then his boots after. Minerva's axe did a number on him, a massive gash going down his shin seeps blood out of it.

But on his ankle, clear as day, a bite. A fucking bite. I feel my heart shatter the same way it did when I lost Dad, when I lost Sierra and her family, when I lost Brody. And now, I'm losing my brother.

He takes a deep breath in, and then slowly exhales as he comes to terms with what's happening. "I'm bit." He bluntly puts.

He and I don't say a word to each other, just staring each other in the eyes. In mine, tears start falling. I've lost so many people, but Benji, he's been my side through all this. He and I survived this mess together for seven years. My best friend, my brother, and now he's gonna die.

He slowly struggles to his feet, using the axe for support. "Come on. We can't stay here". He slowly hobbles toward the woods.

I get under his arm to give him support on his hurt leg. "Come on. Just keep moving. Keep moving forward." I encourage him. With a pained expression on his face, he nods, and we move into the woods.

* * *

After half an hour of walking, a clearing comes into sight. An old, worn-down barn, seemingly empty. Benji nods to me as he and I walk over, just to get some rest. I creak open the barn door, and sure enough, it's quiet. I open up one of the stalls, walking Benji over to a hay bale where I set him down, so both of us can get some rest for a moment. I take this chance to take a look at my brother. His skin already pale, bags forming under his eyes, it's not good, and he and I both can tell.

"So, what now?" I ask him, trying to gather myself.

"Find a way back to the school." He weakly tells me, with a rough cough that follows.

"Yeah, good idea." I agree. "We gotta get back. I think I know the area. Come on, up and at 'em." I urge him desperately.

He just weakly smiles and shakes his head. "You. Not we. This is the end of the line for me. I'm sorry."

This time, I shake my head. "No. No. Benji. Come on. You gotta try! YOU GOTTA FUCKIN' TRY!" At this point, I'm yelling, trying to urge my brother and, to his credit, he does try, but just groans as his leg forces him to the ground. He accepts defeat, sighing as he stares forward at the barn wall.

"I need you, Benji…" I cry to my brother. "You've been by my side all these years, I can't lose you. Not now, not ever."

Benji frowns to me, shaking his head once again. "No… you don't. You're strong, Brett. You're the strongest person I know…"

"Benji…" I look down at the ground, tears streaming out of my face.

"Hey, look at me."

Teary-eyed, I look up at him, and he softly smiles back at me.

"I need you to do something for me. I need you to go back to the school. Tell everyone what happened. Tell them I love them. Then... I want you to keep fighting. Keep fighting for me, Brett. I want you to survive for a long... long time… You're gonna meet someone down the road, a great woman… You're gonna have some kids… And I want you to tell them all about their Uncle Benji. Raise them to be strong, like you. I need you to do that for me, please…"

I wipe the tears from my eyes as my breathing shakens, but I nod to my brother, looking at him with puffy eyes. "Yeah, you got it."

"Good… Good… You got any rounds left in that gun?"

I shake my head. "No. I used the last one to kill the one that got you."

"Damn." He sighs, turning to the axe. "I guess there's only one way to do this, then."

I already know where this is going, and I can't do it. I turn away from him, shaking my head. "You know I can't do that."

"I'm not asking you." He sternly tells me. "Brett, you know what you have to do."

"Benji…"

"Brett. You have to kill me. Don't let me become a walker. That's all I'm asking of you. Please…"

He looks me dead in the eyes, and I know what I must do. I turn around to get the axe, lying on the ground behind me, and I pick it up. I turn back to him, his eyes begging for death's sweet release, and with a grimace, I walk back over to him.

"Thank you… For being the best damn brother in the world." He looks up at me, a final smile in his last moments.

"Wouldn't have given it up for anything." I smile through the tears, "I love you, Benji."

"I love you, too. Want me to tell Mom and Dad anything when I see them?"

"Yeah. Tell 'em I love 'em. And if you see Brody, tell her I love her, too."

"Sure thing."

He and I stare at each other, for one last time, before he lowers his head, and whispers a prayer. That's how I know it's my time. I raise the axe above my head, and with one last moment of clarity, I say one last thing to him.

"I'm sorry, Ben."

And I swing down.

**Happy Friday everyone. The story is winding down, and there's a lot to take in from this chapter as the end approaches. Hope you guys enjoyed, and reviews would be appreciated. See you guys next week.**


	12. All That Remains

**Chapter 12 - All That Remains**

**The Next Day**

The birds call out in a beautiful song in the cool mid-afternoon breeze. I throw a spear into the water, impaling a fish that I casually toss into the bucket. I look back at my haul, and it's pretty satisfying, better than normal. The fish seemed to have smartened up, as they've stopped swimming upstream, so I guess it'll have to do.

"Rosie!" I call out with a sharp whistle afterwards, and the big bulldog struts out from behind the shack, right up to me before she sits down, looking up at me, curious. I give her an ear scratch before walking inside the shack to put the spear away.

As I place the spear with the others, something catches my eye in the corner of the shack. Inscribed in the wood, V+M, surrounded by a heart. Violet and Minerva. I feel bad for Vi, she had something good with Minnie, I bet, before it all fell apart. Getting an idea, I pull out my knife. I go over to a smooth part of the wall, and I start inscribing something myself. B+B, Brett and Brody. I add a heart to surround it, but it kinda looks like a deformed potato. In the back of my mind, I hear her giggle, as I know she would have if she were here.

Below it, I inscribe one last thing. "Always Loved, Never Forgotten." I don't know what led me to write that, but it's true. I'll always love her, and I'll never forget her. I walk back out of the shack, and with Rosie by my side, we walk back to the school.

At least, I walk out of the shack intending to, although some movement forces me to stop. Stumbling through the bushes, a single walker, looking lost as ever. Tenn. There he is, after AJ shot him, he wound up here. Seemingly twiddling his thumbs, the same way he did as a person, it's like Tenn never died. My heart drops thinking about it, but maybe it's better off. Tenn always talked about being with his family again, and now he can be.

Still, though, we can't let a walker stick around. Knife in hand, I creep towards Walker Tenn, completely oblivious to me. With a deep breath, I jab my knife into his skull, making a sickening crunch and squish noise as he lets out a final gasp before falling into the grass for good.

"Sorry, buddy. You deserved better." I whisper to him, although he can't hear me for several obvious reasons, patting the corpse on the back as 'emotional support' before walking back to Rosie. Now, back to the school.

On the trail leading to the school, tied with some leftover rope, Abel's corpse is propped against a tree, looking out at any unwanted visitors as a warning, don't fuck with us. Delta learned that lesson in an explosive way, to say the least.

Aasim walks up next to me, carrying several rabbit carcasses for Omar to cook tonight. He and I smile to each other, looking at how much food we have for Omar. Needless to say, we'll be eating good for a while. I hear a squealing noise as Ruby runs out to us, rather Aasim. She hugs him and greets him with a peck on the cheek. I guess while there was a whole life and death situation, Ruby realized she had feelings for Aasim, and Aasim clearly had feelings for her, given the whole truth or dare incident. That slap that Ruby got him with is a hundred times funnier now, looking back just a couple of days ago. As the gates open, I walk right over to Omar, dropping the bucket right at his feet, and I'm returned a gracious smile from the boy as he stirs a wonderfully smelling broth.

I walk over to the graveyard, seeing Violet kneeling in front one of the graves. I kneel next to her, it's Tenn's grave. It was already made when I got back, meaning Louis, Clem, or AJ must've told the others.

"Paying your respects?" She asks, turning to me, and I get a full view of the damage the bomb did to her. It turns out Ruby's hunch was correct. Violet lost all sight in her right eye, and there were really bad burns on the right side of her face. But, there was no infection and some antibiotics were able to keep the burns clean and safe. So, just some damage to the skin and losing an eye was all the damage from the bomb. Not ideal, but it could've been a lot worse.

"Yeah, I never got the chance to yesterday. Overwhelmed by everything that happened, I didn't think it was the right time, you know?"

"Of course." She nods. "I don't blame you. A lot happened, but you made the right call. And I know he'd agree."

I nod as well, taking a glance at my brother's grave, freshly made, just like Tenn's. "I know. It wasn't something I wanted to do, but I didn't see another choice."

"When you told me what happened, and how he let himself get cut instead of Clem… fuck. Just think, that could've been her just as easily as your brother."

I frown, looking over at Clem, her and AJ laughing at one of the picnic tables. "I know. But Benji knew what he wanted to do. It was extremely noble of him, throwing himself on the line like that."

The two of us turn back to the grave, and my heart sinks as I read his name, inscribed on a plank of wood, just like Marlon, Brody, and Tenn.

"Who's the poor bastard buried over there?" A voice asks us as the both of us turn around. Benji, color back in his face, hobbles over, with the help from some old crutches, since he's missing his right foot. Despite this, he grins brightly, being out of bed for the first time since I got him back.

"What're you doing out of bed?" I ask him as he and I hug. "Ruby said you'd need a few more days, at least."

"Yeah, well, I can only spend so much time laying in bed and staring at the ceiling. Besides, the sooner I can be back on my feet… well, foot, the better."

"Benji!" AJ yells as he immediately darts over to see my brother, leaping into him for a hug.

"Woah! Easy on the broken parts, buddy." He chuckles as he hugs AJ back. Clem's the next to hug him, who doesn't say a word as she goes in for one. It's not until she's shed a couple tears that I hear her say something.

"Benji… I'm so sorry." She mumbles to my brother. "You didn't have to do that. Why did you take that for me?"

"Clem, I'd do it all again if I had to. What kinda person would I be if I stood there and let Minnie slice your leg open?" He assures her. "And what if you got bit? You could be dead right now if that was you. Seriously, don't worry."

"Yeah, but you almost died yourself." She argues. "You were within inches of your life. Ruby said so herself."

As he's about to answer, I interject. "I told you, he's a hard bastard. You can't just kill Benjamin Sanderson like that." He turns to me with a warm smile before looking back at Clem.

"Yeah, what he said."

Aasim walks to us, giving Benji a quick hug before looking at the two of us. "It's good to see you up and about. When Brett told us about what happened, we weren't sure you'd make it. Willy insisted we had a grave ready because you were… you know."

"It was some quick thinking by Brett." Benji tells him. "In the few moments of consciousness I had, I wasn't sure if it would work, but alas, here I am. All it cost was my foot and part of my leg."

* * *

Benji and I stare at each other, for one last time, before he lowers his head, and whispers a prayer. That's how I know it's my time. I raise the axe above my head, and with one last moment of clarity, I say one last thing to him.

"I'm sorry, Ben."

And I swing down, right above the bite on his leg. He lets out a scream of pain as blood spurts from his leg, the cut going about two thirds of the way in.

"WHAT THE HELL?"

"I'm not letting you give up that easily." I assure him as I swing down again, cutting clean through the rest of his leg. Another shriek of pain follows, before his body falls limp, unconscious from the pain of it all. Seeing the blood spraying from his wound, time is of the essence. I grab a bale of hay, and I pull out my lighter, relieved as it sparks, despite being underwater hours earlier. I put my lighter to the hay, igniting the bale, and I put my brother's leg to the wound. Cauterization, something that Angie taught me when I was with her group, it's meant to stop an amputation wound from bleeding and prevent infection. As the fire burns my brother's flesh, a smokey smell fills the barn, but soon enough, the bleeding slows down as his flesh burns.

He remains unconscious, slightly bleeding from his leg as he lays there. I take off my flannel, tying it around the bottom of his leg with the sleeves, the body tied under the sleeves to stop as much of the bleeding as I can. With my flannel tied tightly around his leg, I look around the barn for something to carry him back in. In the back corner, and old wheelbarrow sits, full of hay. Perfect. I tip it on its side, dumping the hay out, and I wheel it over to my brother, making sure to put out the fire on my way back by stomping on the hay. I pick him up, placing his body evenly in the wheelbarrow and I start wheeling him out of the barn.

A small pack of walkers now litter the area, likely drawn by Benji's screaming, but I don't care. Even as they take notice, I keep wheeling Benji to the school. They pursue us the best they can, the echoing of their groans bouncing off the trees getting louder and louder, yet the familiar clearing comes into view as Ericson's appears in the trees. I turn back to see a few walkers emerge from the woods behind, so I keep moving toward the gates. Willy pokes his head out from the lookout perch. Taking notice of us, he disappears for a moment, before he pops out again at the gate, slowly creaking it open. I waste no time meeting him there, and he slams the gate shut behind us, well before any walkers can make it to us.

"What happened?" He asks, pointing to Benji's lack of a right foot.

"H-He was bitten." I shakily respond. "I cut off his foot as a last stitch effort to keep him alive."

"Shit…" He whispers. "He might… Ruby!"

The redhead runs over to us. "Oh gosh… Benji, he…"

"He was bitten. Brett cut off his foot, but-" Willy tries to tell her, but she immediately cuts him off.

"Amputation. Smart idea. You might've bought him some time." Ruby nods, slowly removing my now bloody flannel. "And you cauterized it? Good. Good. I'll take him inside and see what I can do."

I sigh in relief, collapsing to my knees, unsure what to think as Ruby wheels him into the Admin building. The whole world goes silent as everyone else watches on in shock. She disappears inside with my brother, and I feel a hand on my shoulder. I look up at Clementine's amber eyes staring back at mine. AJ follows suit, putting his hand on my other shoulder, and the two of them help me to my feet. Immediately, I hug the both of them.

* * *

My mind fades back to the present as Omar calls us over to the table. All of us sit down as he passes out bowls of soup, a substantial amount of rabbit meat in each of them, expertly prepared by him, as usual. With all the lighthearted conversation and laughter, things finally feel normal. Today, we're not survivors, or soldiers, or anything else. Just friends, enjoying a nice warm meal on a beautiful fall afternoon. No walkers, no raiders, just us.

All the lighthearted conversation immediately stops as Willy takes a piece of meat in his spoon, and flings it across the table at Omar, and it splats right on his cheek, dropping onto the table in front of him, and all eyes go to Omar, glaring right back at Willy, whose mischievous demeanor does a total 180. But then, a small smirk on Omar's face forms, and he starts laughing, which immediately prompts the rest of us to do the same.

A belching noise comes from my right as we then all look at Ruby, who sheepishly grins back at the rest of us. Ruby, the one who always complained about manners, especially burping, casually goes back to eating her food without a care in the world. Not to be outdone, a much louder burp comes from her right, and AJ grins as the rest of us start howling in laughter again.

I slurp down the rest of my soup, and I let out a satisfied sigh as I turn to Omar. "Do we have enough for any seconds?"

"Already?" He sighs. "Did you even taste that?" He asks me.

I nod. "Of course, that's why I want seconds!" Shaking his head, he grabs my bowl to go get another helping, and a victorious smile forms on my face.

"How are your eyes?" Benji asks Violet, who turns away slightly, slightly embarrassed, before turning back to him with a soft smile.

"Between my patch and your stump, we almost make a full pirate." She says with a giggle.

"Any takers on the hook hand?" Benji asks the rest of us, met with a few laughs and a lot of shaking heads.

Dinner goes on, and everything seems pretty light, until Clem stands up, and everyone falls silent.

"So, it's been a few weeks since I met you guys, and it's been an interesting few weeks, to say the least. We've only found out that our old leader was a scumbag, went to war with another group, kicked their ass, and almost died a few thousand times. But, like most of you already know, AJ and I have been away from home for the past few weeks, away from Richmond. And, I think it's time for us to head back." She tells us, and a few quiet murmurs are exchanged through the rest of us. I guess this was inevitable. Clem and AJ have their whole lives back there, and they need to go back to their loved ones.

"I know we've been through a lot, but I already know that Gabe, Ian, Kate, and everyone else are worried sick. So, that's why AJ and I plan on leaving tomorrow morning. And we want you guys to come back with us."

Faces light up at Clem's offer. Mine included. Richmond sounds like the real deal. Strong, accountable leadership, good defense, plenty of people, it only makes sense. But then again, Clem said it herself, it's gonna be a couple days of walking, at least. And with Benji…

"I'm all for going here, but with Benji's leg-"

"We're in." Benji volunteers the both of us. "If you're offering us a spot in Richmond, we gotta take it, right? It's too good to pass up."

"Benji, your leg." I remind him. "You need rest."

"I'll have time to rest when I'm dead." He boldly says back to me. "I'll be fine. Let's go to Richmond."

I look around at the table, and everyone else seems to be in agreement. So, I shrug. "Fuck it, let's do it."

"So, that settles it." Clem beams. "We leave tomorrow morning. Pack as much as you can. It'll be about two days from here to Richmond. With any luck, the toughest part of the trip will be walking there."

"So how exactly do you know where to go? We don't exactly have GPS anymore." Louis asks the important question, but Clem looks back at him confidently.

"The highway. It's a couple hours North from here, and then we just need to head East. It's a straight shot to Richmond." She assures us. "We should get there by dusk the next day if we leave tomorrow."

"You're the boss." He smiles.

Soon after, we all return to our respective rooms, packing up for a journey to a new place to call home. Ericson was great and all, but a chance at a real community, I guess it makes sense why Benji was so adamant about going, even despite his condition. He might be quiet, but god damn he's one hard-headed dude.

I get my backpack from the foot of my bed, and I pack what I can, some shirts, a pair of jeans, my water bottle, and the last two boxes of 9mm ammo I have left. I look over at Benji, who puts down his book and glances back at me, a gracious smile on his face.

"I should be dead right now. And yet, here I am, reading a book, laying in bed like nothing happened. All because you made the decision to try and save me, even though I was a lost cause. Why?"

"I told you," I smile back at him, "I wasn't letting you give up like that. You're all the family I have left, and I can't lose you."

"Well, I'm glad you did. Losing my foot sucks and all, but it's a small price to pay to live another day."

"You were pretty adamant about going to Richmond tomorrow, even with your leg being the way it is." I note. "You're absolutely certain you're gonna be alright? Richmond's gonna be a bit of a hike, and I don't want you falling behind."

"I'll be fine." He assures me. "Seriously, I'll be able to keep up. If it means we have a safe community, I have to do it."

Reluctantly, I nod in agreement. "Ok. I trust you. Just… don't overdo it, alright?"

He nods back as he lays down, looking up at the ceiling. "This is gonna be good for us, I can tell. The school's ran its course. It's time to move on."

"Maybe you're right. A new place might be the right way to go, especially if it's half as good as Clem described it."

That night, I had the best night of sleep I'd had since this mess started. No nightmares, nothing. We're safe now. And we have an opportunity that we can't, and won't pass up.

* * *

The ten of us walk down the road, Rosie makes us eleven, as signs for the highway start to pop up. It looks like it's still several miles away, probably another hour or so of walking, but no one seems to have an issue, even Benji who, despite being on one leg, has been keeping up in his crutches.

"Hey, can we take a break? I need to piss." I ask the others, and we decide to take a quick break. I walk over to a tree, unzip my jeans, and start to relieve myself as a light wind flows through the woods. As I finish up, I zip up my jeans, ready to keep moving.

A hand covers my mouth as another one puts the cool steel of a knife against my throat, not wanting to get my throat slit, I don't resist, raising my hands as my attacker puts their blade against my throat harder.

"How convenient, I run into you here in the middle of the woods." I hear Lilly's voice from behind me, and I can only assume she's been watching us, waiting for a chance. "After what you did to my boat, I should kill you all, take your supplies, and return to the Delta with something. If I'm the only one making it back, I might as well not come back empty-handed." She growls to me, my breathing quickening as she continues to hold me up.

A clicking noise comes from behind us, and I hear Clementine's voice. "Drop it."

Lilly complies, dropping the knife in front of me and walking back. I turn back around, Clem still pointing the gun at the back of her head, and I feel my fists ball up. She and I stare each other dead in the eyes, she not daring move, so I take advantage of that, sending her to the ground with a punch to the gut. I grab her by the collar, dragging her back out onto the main road, catching the attention of the others as we get closer.

"What the fuck is this?" Aasim asks us, intimidated by the sight of Lilly, but not backing down.

"She held a knife to Brett's throat." Clem explains. "She was gonna kill all of us."

"We should kill her. She was gonna kill Brett." AJ suggests.

Violet walks to Lilly, a glare in her one good eye, and kicks her right in her face, leaving a mark right below Lilly's left eye. "No. Killing her right now would be too generous. I want this bitch to suffer."

"I agree," Benji coldly nods, walking over with his crutches to Lilly, who looks at his stump curiously, "She doesn't deserve to die… yet. That'll come soon enough."

"Well, what do we do then?" Omar asks, diverting attention away from Lilly. "She's dangerous. We can't just let her go free."

"We have to kill her!" AJ repeats. "Last time we let her go, she killed James! She can't hurt anyone else!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I see her slowly get to her feet, reaching for Violet's knife in her back pocket, to which I draw my handgun, pointing it at her. "I wouldn't." I warn her. "On your knees."

She backs off as attention shifts back to her. Kneeling down, she looks up at me. "Please… Don't kill me." She pleads, just like on the boat. "I don't wanna die. You have my word, I'll never attack you again."

I scoff. "Same song and dance as the other night. How'd that go?"

"You have every right to kill me, I get it. But please, you guys are good kids. This time'll be different. I'll leave you alone. I just want to see my people again. My husband, my daughter, my people, please."

"Does he know he's married to a killer?" I ask her. "Does the girl know her mother murders other kids?"

"No..." She confesses. "He thinks these are just scouting missions and she's... she's still an infant. Please… Just let me see them again. That's all this has been about. Keeping my people safe while we fight our war. I… I can't let everyone I love die, please!"

Keeping the gun pointed at her, I turn back to the others, and I'm met with a lot of apathetic looks, not a lot of compassion. I look back at her with a similar look on my face, as she looks back at me, sheer desperation and horror on her face. I want her dead, but at the same time, if she's telling the truth, I don't want to rob that kid of a mother, or her husband of his wife. I'm not a total heartless asshole, after all.

I sigh, accepting a difficult decision, and I slightly turn the gun to the right, firing a single shot past her head. She clutches her left ear, dazed by me firing a gun so close to her, and I leave her with a simple warning.

"I see you again, the next one's going into your forehead, got it?"

She nods in relief, and I kick her down to the ground, pointing in the opposite direction. "Now go, before I change my mind."

She takes one last look at all of us, before getting to her feet turning around, and slowly walking away, not looking back for a moment. AJ walks next to me, trying to piece together what just happened.

"Why didn't you kill her? You wanted her dead last time."

"Because," I tell the boy. "I'm gonna give her a chance to make up for what she did. If she really does have a family back home, then it's not fair to them. If she's lying, then she'll get what's coming. I'll make sure of that."

"You know she probably was lying, right?" Clem reminds me, and I nod back.

"Probably, but that doesn't matter. If I see her, I'll kill her. No second thought about it. I'm sick of dealing with her shit. So either way I don't have to deal with her anymore."

"That's fair." She murmurs as we all turn around and start walking down the road once again. I take one last look back at Lilly, almost completely faded from view. Hopefully that's the last time I see her. Regardless, as more signs for the highway come into view, I take her off my mind as with each step, we get one step closer to Richmond.

**So, yes, today's Thursday. Usually, I upload this on Fridays. There is a reason for this. I have three exams tomorrow. Three major exams. And then it's Spring Weekend at my university, so I intend to get belligerently drunk and high the entire weekend and not worry about a single thing. So, my gift to you, this week's chapter a week early. Next week's chapter will be up Friday, like normal. **

**Believe it or not, that was the second-to-last chapter of this story. Time flies, right? Anyways, thinking ahead for the future, I already have the last chapter written, ready to go next Friday, and I've already started mapping out my next project, which I think is gonna be something massive. With a big project, means there's a lot of characters, and frankly, I wanna give back a bit. So, if you have an OC you'd like to see portrayed, you can leave a review or send me a PM of a descripton of your character, using the following format:**

**Name:**

**Age:**

**Build (Height, Weight, and whatnot):**

**Skills:**

**Weapons:**

**Personality:**

**Personal Background:**

**Any other details you'd like to include:**

**Hope I get a lot of submissions from y'all. See you guys next Friday to close this thing out.**


	13. Welcome to the Rest of Our Lives

**Chapter 13 - Welcome to the Rest of Our Lives**

**Dusk, The Next Day**

In the fading sunlight, we finally approach the off ramp, 'Richmond' written in bold block text on the sign. In the distance, I can see bright lights coming from the city. Sure enough, this place is real, not that I had any reason to believe otherwise.

"That's it." Clem notices me looking out toward the city. "Richmond. The front gate is a couple more miles, but we'll be there soon enough."

With a nod, the group keeps walking through the remnants of the old city. Crumbling buildings, now overrun by moss and other foliage, old cars, paint chipping, stripped for parts and whatnot, and walker corpses aplenty litter the area. The area is quiet, except for a couple severely decomposed walkers laying on the ground, still alive, but their bodies broken down to a point where they're unable to actually move, making them incredibly easy to deal with. A single stab to brain with no resistance is all it takes.

Another hour or so of walking later, and a large metal wall comes into view, a faded red insignia painted on, mostly visible due to the torches and lights along the top of it. With confident poise, she leads the way, right up to the massive wall.

"Hey! Anyone there?" She calls out, despite no one being there. A few moments pass by, before a rougher-looking man pokes his head out, noticeable scars under both his eyes.

"Clementine? Is that you? And AJ?" He asks, a heavy Southern accent in his voice, like many other people I've met recently.

"Sure is, Max!" She grins.

"Holy crap! We thought for sure you were- wait a minute." He pulls out a walkie talkie, saying something into it, before turning back to us. "Boss is gonna wanna see this."

Minutes later, the gate slowly creaks open, and almost immediately, a young boy, younger than AJ, runs out to greet Clem.

"CLEM!" He yells, running right into her arms, giving her a great, big hug. "AJ!" He yells with a loud giggle, pointing at AJ, who grins and joins in on the hug. "I missed you!"

"I missed you, too, buddy." Clem smiles with a giggle of her own. "Where's your daddy?"

"I'm right here." We all turn to see a man, tall, a neatly-trimmed beard, a backwards baseball cap, a green plaid flannel, and some dark wash jeans, walking toward us. Clem and AJ run over to him, and he grins as he pulls them in for a hug. "It's so good to see you guys. When you didn't come back from your supply run, we feared the worst. We sent out a search party and they couldn't find anything. Weeks passed by, and we all accepted the inevitable. I can't believe you're back." He says, relieved at the sight of them, safe and sound. "And I see you brought some friends."

"They saved my life." She tells him. "Without them, we'd be walker food."

"Thank God…" He smiles before turning to us, his son in one arm. "Well, any friend of Clem's is a friend of mine. Welcome to Richmond. My name's Ian Sullivan, I'm what passes for a leader around here nowadays."

We all take turns introducing ourselves, and he welcomes us into his community with open arms, leading us in and showing us around a bit, before we wind up at what appears to be an old school.

"So, as is standard with all new people, we need to check for bites and whatnot. I trust Clem's judgement with all this, but it's just for safety. I'll have one of our doctors come and check on you, ask a couple of questions, and then you'll be good to go. In and out in, say, fifteen minutes, tops."

I shrug. "Sounds reasonable." He leads us into the school, downstairs to what looks to be an old locker room. As we make ourselves comfortable, he leaves us with some parting words.

"I'm gonna go put Chandler here down for the night. I'll have Eleanor or Devin down here to check you guys out, and I'll be back."

With that, he disappears around the corner, leaving all of us by ourselves once again.

"Wow… We're really here." Louis says, amazed. "This place looks amazing."

"I gotta admit, I wasn't sure about going here," Ruby admits, "But seeing y'all so determined to go here, and seeing it for myself, I'm glad I was wrong." She says with a smile. The general consensus nods in agreement.

The door opens, and a pair of people walk in. A taller, asian woman with straight brown hair and a purple bandana around her neck, and a tall, slender but ripped man with a dirty blond crew cut.

"Hey there, I'm Eleanor, and this is Devin." The woman introduces herself and the other doctor. "We're two of the doctors here at Richmond, and Ian wanted us to check you guys out, make sure everything's good."

They have us all line up, and Benji and I find ourselves on the end. Eleanor and Devin both work their way outwards, and eventually, Eleanor makes it to me, right after she examines Violet's burns.

"Hi there, I'm Eleanor." She offers her hand to me with a warm smile, both of which I return.

"Brett. Brett Sanderson."

"So, Brett, any sort of medical issues I should know about?" She asks as she starts checking for any bites, which I don't have any, so no issue here.

"None." I say as I shake my head. "I'm about as healthy as someone in a zombie apocalypse can be." I joke to her.

She lightly chuckles. "How fortunate. And how old are you?"

"Nineteen."

I hear her scribble something onto her notebook as she continues. "Any allergies?"

Once again, I shake my head. "Nope."

"Okay… seems like everything is in order." She says, writing down one more thing before going to my brother. "Hi, I'm Eleanor."

"I'm Benjamin. Benjamin Sanderson. But please, call me Benji." He respectfully introduces himself.

"Brothers?" She asks us, and the both of us nod back.

As she starts checking him out, her first question, rightfully so, is his missing right foot. "How'd that happen?"

"Walker got me a few days ago." He informs her. "My brother cut it off to save my life. I was almost a goner."

"Jeez." She shudders, "Normally, I'd have you on observation for a couple days, but you made it all the way here, and you look really healthy, so I think it's safe to let it slide. If you have any difficulty with your crutches, let me know, alright?"

"Sure thing." He smiles and nods.

"Elle," Devin speaks up from the other side of the room, inspecting Aasim. "It's probably a longshot, but do you think Conrad might be able to make him a prosthetic?"

"Hmmm," She ponders for a moment. "He is pretty handy. We can ask him in the morning."

My brother's face sports an excited grin, and frankly, mine does too. To have him walking around somewhat normally again will be really good, and I know he has to agree.

Getting back to the inspection, she asks him the same questions she asked me, all of the answers being the same except that he's two years younger. Like with me, she writes some things down on her notepad, and that's it. She and Devin leave to go get Ian, once again leaving us in the locker room.

"A prosthetic, huh?" Benji asks with an optimistic smile. "Guess I might not be on crutches for too long."

"Let's hope so." I agree.

Minutes later, Ian returns. "Everything all set? Good. You guys gotta be hungry, right? Come on, my wife's making dinner back at home."

He leads us back out of the building, through the streets, bustling with life. This music, laughter, happiness, it's something unlike anything I've seen in a while. This place is amazing.

Toward the back end of town, a decently sized house, with a hitching post out in front with a raven on it. He walks up a path to the front door, motioning us to follow. The door opens, and he welcomes us all into his home, which looks a lot bigger on the inside.

"Hey, Kate?" Ian calls out. "Come here a sec, I've got a few people I want you to meet."

From around a corner, a medium-height woman, tan skin, long, brown hair put up in a single braid, with a noticeable pregnancy bump, she's absolutely gorgeous. She turns over to us with a surprised look on her face. "Jesus, Ian! When you said a few people were coming over, I figured maybe, four or five at most, not a dozen!" She lightly scolds him, to which he sheepishly grins back.

"Well, you see, about that..." He motions to Clem and AJ, who found themselves behind me, Benji, and Louis, and they soon make their way to the front, and Kate's demeanor immediately changes.

"Oh my god…" She whispers. "Clem… AJ… But you…"

The three of them go in for a hug, before Kate breaks away and looks over to Ian. "Does Gabe know she's back yet?" She asks him, and he shakes his head.

"That was my next thing. When's he supposed to be back?"

"Any minute now." She tells him. "I'm sure he'll be ecstatic to see Clem, you've seen how he's been the past few weeks."

"Definitely. But in the meantime, I'm starving and I'm sure these kids are, too. Let's eat!" Ian enthusiastically remarks, and Kate rolls her eyes with a small smile, going back to the kitchen as Ian sets some extra plates down. Minutes later, the couple serves us dinner, roast chicken with a couple loaves of bread, and we all dig in.

"Mrs. Sullivan, I gotta say, I love what you've done with the place. You have a real eye for interior decoration." Louis remarks with a sly smile, getting Kate to giggle.

"Why, thank you, Louis. You're a real charmer."

"I like to think so." He responds confidently, as I've seen Louis do so often.

"Easy there, buster. You know that's my wife." Ian jokingly warns him with a warm smile of his own, and Louis immediately backtracks.

"Oh I wouldn't dream of it, sir. Clem's told me plenty of stories about you, and I wouldn't dare get on your bad side."

He has a big, hearty laugh, likely reminiscing about the past. "Is that so? Well, yeah, I had to do some pretty messed up things. Sometimes justified, sometimes not so much. I like to think I'm a changed man now. Leading a community like this, it's helped me become a lot smarter about those sorta things."

Omar, usually the perfectionist, especially with food, is the first to remark on the food. With a toothy grin, he turns to Kate. "Mrs. Sullivan, this is amazing. Some of the best food I've ever had."

"You should know how big of a compliment that is," Aasim adds. "Omar is a perfectionist, especially when it comes to food. He takes cooking very seriously."

"Thank you, boys." She smiles, with a slight blush. "If you're that good, maybe you should make us dinner sometime, Omar. And please, call me Kate."

"I will gladly cook dinner for you guys." Omar smugly smiles. "Hell, these guys already know what that's like, given I've been cooking them for years now."

"Yeah!" Willy exclaims, "Those few days where you were kidnapped were terrible. We could barely cook anything, and it wasn't good."

Ian looks at the rest of us, intrigued and concerned, as he keeps eating. "Kidnapped? Jesus, what happened?"

Clem looks at Ian, a stone-cold serious look on her face. "It was Lilly."

He freezes, dropping his fork back into his food, as he looks back to Clem. "What did you say?"

"It was Lilly." She tells him. "She… she's still out there."

"You're kidding… She's really still around. God damn it…"

"What's all this about?" Kate asks her husband and Clem, the two that already knew Lilly. "Who's Lilly?"

"Lilly, she… she was part of my first group. I went to high school with her, and we went our separate ways afterwards, she went into the military, and I went to college, where I met Carley, my first wife." That last part, he emphasizes for the rest of the group, who listens on in surprise, not daring to say a word."We met up again when this mess started, a good three years after high school. I was engaged to Carley, and we were looting a drug store in Macon, Georgia, that was abandoned, where she was with her group, including her asshole of a father. Anyways, we joined their group, and that group got bigger over time. Lilly was in charge, and while she was kinda moody, things were actually going pretty well."

"So, what happened?" Violet asks. "Things seem pretty good, and like, almost a total opposite of the Lilly we know."

"Lilly's father, Larry, was a real rough dude, both physically and personality-wise. I guess he lost his wife to cancer or something and was never able to get over that, and he had a real bad heart condition that almost got him killed a couple times. One night, they got into a bad situation where they got kidnapped by a family of cannibals. Her dad had a heart attack and died right there. We had just learned that a bite itself doesn't turn you, and it was fresh in our minds, so a couple of guys in the group they… threw a salt lick on his head so he wouldn't turn." He says with slight hesitation. "Lilly was never the same after that. Shorter temper, more frequent outbursts, even the occasional physical altercation. This all got to a boil when it was revealed that someone stole supplies from our group. We got attacked by another group that afternoon, expecting a package of drugs that they didn't get. Lilly immediately suspected two people, this kid, Ben, and my wife. When Carley stood up to Lilly, Lilly shot her like a rabid animal, trying to kill her."

The room stays silent as Ian recounts what happened. Clem told me the short version of this story a few weeks ago, when we were preparing for the attack. Hearing Ian tell it from his perspective, with more detail, I can't tell if I should feel even worse for her or if I should've killed her when I had the chance. "After she shot Carley, we ditched her on the side of the road. I could've killed her, but I was more concerned with seeing Carley safe. She survived the incident, thank God, but still."

Kate looks at her husband, stunned. Clearly, this was her first time hearing this story, too. The room remains silent as Ian gets back to eating, taking a sip of his wine as he does so. "This is really good, Kate." He says to his wife, who just looks back at him, bewildered.

"What did she do to you guys?" She asks us, and Benji is the first to respond.

"She tried to mess with our minds, that's what. She thought she could scare us into being her soldiers, fighting a war for her community up North. Needless to say, she failed. We blew up her boat, and most of the crew died."

"Well, you don't have to worry anymore. Here in Richmond, we are strong, well-defended, and can beat anyone that tries to pick a fight." Ian confidently assures us. "You have my word to the grave on that."

"So, you mean-" I ask him, and he cuts me off with an enthusiastic smile.

"What, did you think I'd invite you in, have dinner with us, and then tell you to scram? Of course not, I'm offering all of you a spot in Richmond, should you choose to accept it. Of course, I can't think of many people who would choose the alternative in this day and age."

Ian's offer is immediately met with enthusiastic cheers as we all graciously accept. AJ beams the most at this, knowing we're still gonna be living together. After everything that's happened the past few weeks, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Actually, that's not entirely true. There is one thing I'd change.

Brody. I wish she was here with me. If she was here, this would be perfect. But then again, maybe it's a good thing she's in Heaven now. She didn't have to stress about the attack, which I know she absolutely would have. If I lost her during our little war with the Delta, that'd be worse than what happened with Marlon, if anything. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if that happened. But still, on the off chance everything went well, this moment would be absolutely perfect.

My thoughts are interrupted as the front door opens, and two men walk into the house, one older man, around Ian's age, maybe, with thick brown facial hair wearing a black jacket and the other younger, around my age or so, wearing a blue denim jacket and a red beanie. "What the…" The younger one says, seeing the dozen of us in here.

"Gabe! Welcome home, buddy. We've got a few guests tonight for dinner." Ian greets the younger one.

"Certainly one way of putting it." The older one says, walking in and taking off his shoes. "Lotta new faces here. Are these new members?"

"For the most part, Javi," Ian responds. "We've got a couple of old friends here, too."

"Oh really? Who-" He immediately stops himself, in shock at the sight of Clem and AJ, unable to say anything, his jaw drops.

"What? What is it, Javi?" Gabe asks as he joins the other man, only for Clem to run over to him with a squeal and pounce, knocking him to the ground as the two kiss, much to his surprise.

Kate covers her mouth as she laughs at the sight of it all.

"Clem I-... I thought you were dead. It's been three weeks." The boy stammers as Clem shuts him up with another kiss.

"Are you kidding? You can't kill me that easily, you dork." She giggles, pecking her boyfriend one last time as the two get to their feet. Louis keeps an uncomfortable look on his face, I guess he still has feelings. Well, that definitely shattered any hope of that. Poor guy. I look back at Benji, who has a similar look on his face, and I pat him on the shoulder. I feel bad for the both of them, but things'll change for them, soon enough.

"Well, everyone, this is Javi and Gabe. Javi's my brother-in-law, and Gabe is his nephew. The two of them work in the security division, Javi being the head of security here. Eleanor, who you all met earlier, is the head of the hospitals, and I'm in charge of community affairs. The three of us make the hard decisions around here, to keep this place running." Ian explains to us. The two of them introduce themselves shortly after, they seem like good enough guys. Ian grabs Javi and Gabe plates of food and gets a glass of wine for Javi. As time passes, we all converse and get to know each other a bit better, when Kate all of a sudden gets up from her seat, and everyone looks over at her, a wide smile on her face.

"So, this might be as good a time as any, but for those of you who can't quite tell, I'm about six and a half months pregnant with our second child. Well, I saw Dr. Lingard today for an appointment, and, well… in early February, we'll be having a girl!"

Everyone turns to Ian, whose jaw drops into the widest smile I've ever seen, as he and Kate hug, a loud cheer erupting from the crowd of fourteen or so. He kisses his wife to the sound of roaring applause. This day's been an eventful one, to say the least.

The light ambiance continues for a while, before it becomes evident that it's time to call it a night. The ten or so of us walk out of Ian's house, and he leads us to an apartment building a couple blocks down, where he explains that there's vacancy, and we all room up. After that all gets sorted out, Omar, Aasim, and Willy take one apartment, Ruby and Violet take another, and Louis, Benji, and I take one, and we also decide to let Rosie stay with us, at the request of Benji, interestingly enough. All three apartments are right by each other, so it's really just like dorming at the school, albeit on a much larger scale.

"Alright, now that you guys are all situated, I should probably tell you about... initiation." Ian hesitates, before turning to Clem. "It's not fun, but it's a way to show your loyalty to the community. You have to get the community logo branded with a hot iron somewhere on your body. Clem?"

Clem rolls up her sleeve, and right on her bicep, a circular mark with the same insignia we saw on the walls scarred deep into her skin. With a smile, she looks back to the rest of us. "Only hurts for a minute."

Clem's remark is met with worried murmurs, a few of the others even backing away in shock or fear, and I don't blame them. These people, they really brand loyalty into their people? What the fuck? After all these good things we've seen and heard...

A small smirk forms on Ian's face as he starts chuckling. "I told you they'd fall for it." He says to Clem before turning back to us. "Nah, we're just joking. That was something the old regime did, a buncha sick fucks that used to run this place before. Not anymore, thank God. No branding, don't worry about that."

The worried murmurs turn to relieved sighs and a couple unamused pouts as Ian laughs it off once again.

Before we all go our separate ways, Ian reminds us to get a good night's sleep, as our lives working and contributing to the community starts tomorrow. With that, he leaves the building, and the rest of us are left to go to our own places.

"This. Is. Amazing!" Louis exclaims as he plops down on the couch, propping his feet up on the coffee table. "Ian's really cool. And this city, oh man. I'm glad he offered us a spot here. This blows the school out of the water in every way possible."

"You can say that again." I grin as I collapse into a chair next to him. "This place is gonna be good for us."

"A new day, a new opportunity. We're gonna make the most of this place. Turn it into something better than it already is." Benji grins, opening the doors to one of the bedrooms, dropping his bag on the floor. I follow him into the room, dropping my stuff in front of the opposite bed, the two of us rooming together like we have for our entire lives.

"Welcome to the rest of our lives." I say to my brother as I lay down in my bed, looking up at the blank ceiling. All I can feel is a feeling of calm I hadn't felt in a long time. This is it. A new place to call home.

That night, I slept perfectly. No nightmares about Dad, Sierra, or Brody, nothing. Just pure, safe, peaceful slumber, something that was almost completely foreign to me at that point. A ray of sunshine pours in through the window as the next morning begins hours later, and with a wide smile, I sit up in my bed.

This is it. The rest of our lives starts today.

**Well, that's it. The end of my second story. 13 chapters in 13 weeks, significantly shorter than my previous project, which was 42 Chapters over something like 13 months. I had a lot of fun writing this one, and hopefully you all had as much fun reading it. Once again, special thanks goes out to undyingrage98489 for his OC, Benji, who will be making a return in my next story, alongside the rest of the Ericson crew and the Richmond community, as well as some other returning characters. But, as I mentioned last chapter, I think my next project is going to be my most ambitious one yet, and I'm gonna need some help. I need as many OCs as I can get here, so I would greatly appreciate it if you guys would submit any OCs you would like to see portrayed in my next story. Feel free to leave a review with your OC or pm me using the format I left in the AN for last chapter. **

**Thank You all for the support, and I'll see you soon :]**


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